Samuel Pepys (February 23, 1633-May 26, 1703) was an English diarist, who had served as a clerk in the British Navy. He was promoted to Secretary of the Admiralty, instituting many of the administrative methods of the British Navy, and was elected president of the Royal Society. His Diary, kept from the years of 1660-69, has become a vivid and popular picture of life in England during the period of the Restoration, the Plague, and the Fire of London. Written in cipher, it was not decoded and published until 1825. In 1928, it was made into the play, And So To Bed.
On March 22, 1660, Samuel Pepys wrote in his Diary:
<I pray God to keep me from being proud.> 1633SP001 On February 23, 1667, he wrote:
<This day I am, by the blessing of God, 34 years old, in very good health and mind's content, and in condition of estate much beyond whatever my friends could expect of a child of theirs, this day 34 years. The Lord's name be praised! and may I be thankful for it.> 1633SP002
In his final diary entry, May 31, 1669, just before the most active period of his life with the British government, Samuel Pepys wrote:
<And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave; for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepares me!> 1633SP003
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1633SP001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Samuel Pepys, March 22, 1660, in his Diary. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 309.
1633SP002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Samuel Pepys, February 23, 1667, in his Diary. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 310.
1633SP003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Samuel Pepys, May 31, 1669, in the last entry of his Diary. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 310.