Call it, as Dr. Samuel Johnson did when asked about second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience.

Dr. Samuel Johnson said: "I do not believe in spirits-I have seen too many of them."

It begins with the wife of Dr. Samuel Johnson entering the library.

Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote of him, "His was a name which Ireland ought to honour."

Dr. Samuel Johnson, the 18th-century word expert, constantly turned down pleas for him to say things famously.

As Dr. Samuel Johnson once pointed out, the prospect of hanging concentrates the mind.

Dr. Samuel Johnson beautifully said of another author's ideas that they were "concatenated without abruption."

Dr. Samuel Johnson asserted that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

To Dr. Samuel Johnson, reputedly a 40-cup-a-day man, it was a lubricant of thought and speech.

Dr. Samuel Johnson the lexicographer, who is to this day frequently referred to as "the Good Doctor".