Edward Johnston Quotes

A man who don't know history, he don't know anything.

If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything.” Edward Johnston

in many ways, Eric Gill’s typeface, a follower of Edward Johnston’s type for the London Underground, is an awkward mix of Geometric and Humanist ideas — from its circular “o” to its dynamic, calligraphic “a.” Uppercase widths vary wildly. The long-legged “R” causes spacing issues, especially in the lighter weights. And the “g” is an odd concoction that even Gill himself fittingly called a “pair of spectacles.” Still, there is lasting charm in this face, and it has become synonymous with British culture ever since it

Forrest spat, “Bah. We don’t need it. This world doesn’t need another nation of steel and soot. We showed that magic defeats metal. Grant learned that lesson from Vicksburg to Lexington and everywhere in between.” That Johnston could not dispute—not that he would have even if he could. Most of the nation believed the War of Secession was won at Pickett’s Blaze in Pennsylvania. Few in the Confederate heartland from Virginia to Alabama truly appreciated how General Forrest had driven the Union forces back hundreds of miles from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the banks of the Ohio River, leaving a string of charred corpses in his wake. But at least in the eyes of the Invisible Knights, Forrest was the true hero of the country.

Hear ye then how our fathers before us discover'd the Witche: Mark well their manner, for it is quiet and assumeth naught. It is in peacefull tones they speak, and oft seem abstracted. Seeming to prefer the company of Beastes, they converse with them as equals. They will dwelle in lonely places, there better (as they say) to know the voices of the Wind and hear the secrets of Nature. Possessing Wysdom of the feldes and forrests, they doe heale and arme with their harvests. They concerne themselves not with idle fashion, nor doe worldly Goodes hold worth for them. Be not so confused as to think that only Womankynde harbour the gift in this matter. Of Men there bee many that holde mickle power” —Edward Johnston, Esq. Sudbery, Suffolk My

This then is the scribe’s direct purpose: the making of useful things legibly beautiful.

Of all the Arts, writing, perhaps, shows most clearly the formative force of the instruments used.