98. Appropriateness
"A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out
of a garden."
Boswell: Life
Link
142. Appropriateness; Children;
Parents!!! Grrrrrr!!!
If you had had children, Sir, said I, would you have taught them
anything? "I hope (replied he), that I should have willingly
lived on bread and water to obtain instruction for them; but I
would not 
have set their future
friendship to hazard for the sake
of thrusting into their heads knowledge of things for which they
might not perhaps have either taste or necessity. You teach your
daughters the diameters of the planets, and wonder when you have
done that they do not delight in your company. No science can be
communicated by mortal creatures without attention from the
scholar; no attention can be obtained from children without the
affliction of pain, and pain is never remembered without
resentment."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
Link
184. Appropriateness
"I once knew a lady lend the key of her library to a poor
scribbling dependent, as if she took the woman for an ostrich
that could digest iron."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
Link
296. Appropriateness; Novelty
"All infidel writers drop into oblivion, when personal
connections and the floridness of novelty are gone; though now
and then a foolish fellow, who thinks he can be witty upon them,
may bring them again into notice. There will sometimes start up
a College joker, who does not consider that what is a joke in a
College will not do in the world."
Boswell: Life
Link
305. Appropriateness; Parents;
Shyness
It having been mentioned to Dr. Johnson that a gentleman who had
a son whom he imagined to have an extreme degree of timidity,
resolved to send him to a publick school, that he might acquire
confidence; --"Sir, (said Johnson,) this is a preposterous
expedient for removing his infirmity; such a disposition should
be cultivated in the shade. Placing him in a publick school is
forcing an owl upon day."
Boswell: Life
Link
923. Appropriateness; Simplicity
"That for which there is no occasion, had always better be
dispensed with."
Anecdote from Fanny Burney, in C.B. Tinker, Dr. Johnson
and Fanny Burney (1912)
Link
1,010. Appropriateness; Manners;
Superficiality
"I have, indeed, not found among any part of mankind less real
and rational complaisance than among those who have passed their
time in paying and receiving visits, in frequenting public
entertainments, in studying the exact measures of ceremony, and
in watching all the variations of fashionable courtesy. They
know, indeed, at what hour they may beat the door of an
acquaintance, how many steps they must attend him towards the
gate, and what interval should pass before his visit is returned;
but seldom extend their care beyond the exterior and unessential
parts of civility, nor refuse their own vanity for gratification,
however expensive to the quiet of another."
Johnson: Rambler #98 (February 23, 1751)
Link
1,305. Appropriateness; Deceit;
Vanity
On why there is not always a natural fit between the available
work and the available labor supply: "...the benefit of this
adaptation of men to things is not always perceived. The folly
or indigence of those who set their services to sale inclines
them to boast of qualifications which they do not possess, and
attempt business which they do not understand; and they who have
the power of assigning to others the task of life are seldom
honest or seldom happy in their nominations."
Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751)
Link
