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The eighteenth
century was a golden age of insults, with Swift, Pope and
Voltaire providing much of the lucre. When it came to verbal
goring, though, Samuel Johnson's lance was among the sharpest.
He adored a good sparring and reveled in giving much better
than he got. |
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Also by Levenger Press
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Among the 300+ insults defined as only Johnson could—and culled from his
famous Dictionary—are the ones below.
See if you can guess their meanings.
Just roll your mouse over the buttons to reveal Johnson's definitions.
If you're drawn to superior snubs like these,
we offer these zingers and
four more in magnetic form, to wear
or to post. Definitions are included.
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Johnson on Milton's Paradise Lost:
"None
ever wished it longer." |
On the writer Oliver Goldsmith (a friend):
"He seldom comes where he is not more ignorant than any one else." |
On the overly garrulous:
"Do
not be like the spider, man; and spin conversation thus incessantly." |
On too many questions from his faithful companion,
Boswell, who told Johnson he only asked them because Johnson was so
good at answering:
"Sir, my being so good is no
reason why you should be so ill." |
On Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels:
"When once you have thought of big men and little
men, it is very easy to do all the rest." |
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Excerpted from Samuel Johnson's Insults,
edited by Jack Lynch.
A Levenger
Press/Walker & Company book, registered under U.S.
copyright.
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