John Evelyn (1620–1706) was an English diarist and writer. He is remembered chiefly for his Diary (1818,) which details such important historical events as the Great Plague and London’s Great Fire.
Born in Wotton, near Dorking, Surrey, Evelyn was brought up in Lewes (1625–37,) then entered Balliol College-Oxford, and in 1640 the Middle Temple. He traveled for four years on the European continent and married the ambassador’s daughter in Paris (1647.)
Evelyn settled at Sayes Court, Deptford, in 1652 but spent a lot of time at court after the Restoration. He was one of the administrators of the privy seal 1685–87 and treasurer of Greenwich Hospital 1695–1703. Active in church affairs, he was involved in rebuilding St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Of Evelyn’s three dozen literary works, the most important are Fumifugium, or The Inconvenience of the Air and Smoke of London Dissipated (1661,) Sculptura, or the Art of Engraving on Copper (1662,) and Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664.) His Diary (1817) covers the years 1641–1706 and contains vivid portraits of his contemporaries.
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Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.
—John Evelyn
Topics: Friendship
Living in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, I have learned, from thence this truth, which I desire might be communicated to posterity: that all is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety.
—John Evelyn
Topics: Wisdom
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