"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." (Samuel Johnson, "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia", 1759)
"Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils." (Samuel Johnson, 1765)
"The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs." (Samuel Johnson, "The Idler", 1767)
"No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculation than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius." (Samuel Johnson, "The Rambler", 1750–52)
"He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea." (Samuel Johnson, "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland", 1775)
"Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason." (Samuel Johnson, "Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets", 1779–81)
"Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise." (Samuel Johnson, 1787)
"Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy; knowledge is not always present." (Samuel Johnson, 1797)
"We owe to memory not only the increase of our knowledge, and our progress in rational inquiries, but many other intellectual pleasures." (Samuel Johnson, "The Rambler", 1799)
"When the eye or the imagination is struck with an uncommon work, the next transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed." (Samuel Johnson, 1810)
"It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit, or analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we see more, we become possessed of more certainties, and consequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider base of analogy." (Samuel Johnson, 1825)
"What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read." (Samuel Johnson)
"You may translate books of science exactly. […] The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written." (Samuel Johnson)
No comments:
Post a Comment