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How did Samuel Johnson use literary quotations in A Dictionary of the English Language?

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Painting of Samuel Johnson showing Johnson seated at a desk with a quill in hand and papers before him, wearing a brown coat and white wig. — Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson, oil on canvas by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1756; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

In A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson utilized literary quotations as a foundational method to support, illustrate, and exemplify the various shades of meaning for the words he defined. Rather than working from a systematic word list, Johnson marked up books he read to select these citations, which were drawn primarily from English literature spanning from the Elizabethan period to his own time.123

These quotations served several key functions:
* Illustrating Usage: They provided concrete examples of how words were used by reputable writers, effectively establishing a literary canon.32
* Moral Guidance: Because Johnson insisted on morality and piety, he frequently selected illustrations from sermons and conduct books alongside traditional literature.3
* Personal Selection: The choice of authors and passages was highly personal, reflecting Johnson’s own values; he notably excluded writers like Thomas Hobbes and Bernard de Mandeville on moral grounds.3

By incorporating these citations, Johnson’s work functioned as both a dictionary and an anthology, demonstrating his skill in integrating the resources of the English language with his own intellectual power.13