Tag: Samuel Johnson

By Little and Little

One makes a better world by what Dostoevsky liked to call “microscopic actions.” When you walk down the street, Zossima tells the other monks, don’t scowl. A kindly look can shift a person’s mood and…

Take Charge

Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it.  JOHNSON:  “I have looked into it.”  “What (said Elphinston) have you not read it through?” …

Blissful and Blithe

Yet we to whom the shortness of life has given frequent occasions of contemplating mortality, can, without emotion, see generations of men pass away, and are at leisure to establish modes of sorrow, and adjust…

Beware/Be Aware of Anger

The maxim which Periander of Corinth, one of the seven sages of Greece, left as a memorial of his knowledge and benevolence, was χολου κρατει, Be master of thy anger. He considered anger as the…

You, Too?

I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful; for not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world,…

Biographilia

I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world,…

Acting on This Could Save Some Energy

But whatever be the motive of insult, it is always best to overlook it, for folly scarcely  can deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.   –Dr. Samuel Johnson, quoted in Paul Fussell, Samuel…

Unodious Comparisons

Make the most and best of your lot, and compare yourself not with the few that are above you, but with the multitudes which are below you.  –Samuel Johnson, in James Boswell, The Life of…

Notice What You Notice

Primo Levi:  I never stopped recording the world and people around me, so much that I still have an unbelievably detailed image of them. I had an intense wish to understand, I was constantly pervaded…