Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.
Interpretation
The lexicographer seeks to avoid criticism rather than aiming for acclaim.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson expresses the unique role of a lexicographer, who focuses on the difficult task of defining and documenting language. Unlike other authors who might strive for praise through their creative work, the lexicographer’s primary goal is to avoid blame for inaccuracies in their definitions, emphasizing the challenges and responsibilities inherent in the pursuit of linguistic clarity.
In practice
In a discussion about the intricacies of language, this quote can highlight the challenges faced by those documenting words.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
If you have come to these pages for laughter, may you find it. If you are here to be offended, may your ire rise and your blood boil. If you seek an adventure, may this song sing you away to blissful escape. If you need to test or confirm your beliefs, may you reach comfortable conclusions. All books reveal perfection, by what they are or what they are not. May you find that which you seek, in these pages or outside them. May you find perfection, and know it by name.
It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.
The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief is a plot.
A novel is a machine for generating interpretations.
But I too hate long books: the better, the worse. If they're bad they merely make me pant with the effort of holding them up for a few minutes. But if they're good, I turn into a social moron for days, refusing to go out of my room, scowling and growling at interruptions, ignoring weddings and funerals, and making enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of Middlemarch.
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