Samuel Richardson Quotes
A good man will extend his munificence to the industrious poor of all persuasions reduced by age, infirmity, or accident; to thosewho labour under incurable maladies; and to the youth of either sex, who are capable of beginning the world with advantage, but have not the means.
Richardson, Samuel. The History of Sir Charles Grandison. S. Richardson, 1754.
This passage was quoted by Colonial Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop in A Modell of Christian Charity, 1630.
Samuel Richardson was an English writer and printer best known for three epistolary novels: Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748) and The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753). He printed almost 500 works during his life, including journals and magazines, working periodically with the London bookseller Andrew Millar. Richardson had been apprenticed to a printer, whose daughter he eventually married. He lost her along with five sons, but remarried and had four daughters who reached adulthood, but no male heirs to continue the print shop. As it ran down, he wrote his first novel at the age of 51 and immediately joined the popular, admired writers of his day. Leading figures he knew included Samuel Johnson and Sarah Fielding, and the eminent physician and Behmenist George Cheyne and the theologian and writer William Law, whose books he printed. At Law's request, Richardson printed some poems by John Byrom. In the literary world he rivalled Henry Fielding, and the two responded to each other's literary styles.
