December 4, 2009

Some Dr. Johnson

Some food for thought from my hero Dr. Johnson:

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords; but like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken. - From a letter written by Johnson in 1762

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it. - From a conversation Dr. Johnson had with Dr. Burney.

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