42. Authority; Class
"Were all distinctions abolished, the strongest would not long
acquiesce, but would endeavour to obtain a superiority by their
bodily strength. But, Sir, as subordination is very necessary
for society, and contentions for superiority very dangerous,
mankind, that is to say, all civilized nations, have settled it
upon a plan invariable in principle. A man is born to hereditary
rank; or his being appointed to certain offices, gives him a
certain rank. Subordination tends greatly to human happiness.
Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment
than mere animal pleasure."
Boswell: Life
Link
43. Class
I said, I considered distinction of rank to be of so
much importance in civilized society, that if I were asked on the
same day to dine with the first Duke in England, and with the
first man in Britain for genius, I should hesitate which to
prefer. Johnson: "To be sure, Sir, if you were to dine
only once, and it were never to be known where you dined, you
would choose rather to dine with the first man for genius; but
to gain more respect, you should dine with the first Duke in
England. For nine people in ten that you meet with, would have a
higher opinion of you for having dined with a Duke; and the
great genius himself would receive you better, because you had
been with the great Duke."
Boswell: Life
Link
45. Class
"Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great
republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very
grave countenance, and said to her, 'Madam, I am now become a
convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind
are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable
proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible,
civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that
he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us.' I thus, Sir,
shewed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine. She has
never liked me since. Sir, your levellers wish to level
down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling
up to themselves. They would all have some people under
them; why not then have some people above them?"
Boswell: Life
Link
46. Class
I mentioned a certain authour who disgusted me by his
forwardness, and by shewing no deference to noblemen into whose
company he was admitted. Johnson: "Suppose a shoemaker
should claim an equality with him, as he does with a Lord: how
he would stare. 'Why, Sir, do you stare? (says the shoemaker,) I
do great service to society. 'Tis true, I am paid for doing it;
but so are you, Sir: and I am sorry to say it, better paid than
I am, for doing something not so necessary. For mankind could do
better without your books, than without my shoes.' Thus, Sir,
there would be a perpetual struggle for precedence, were there no
fixed invariable rules for the distinction of rank, which creates
no jealousy, at is allowed to be accidental."
Boswell: Life
Link
68. Class
"So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that
no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire
an evident superiority over the other."
Boswell: Life
Link
207. Class
I said to him I supposed there was no civilised country in the
world, where the misery of want in the lowest classes of the
people was prevented. Johnson: "I believe, Sir, there is
not; but it is better that some should be unhappy, than that
none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state
of equality."
Boswell: Life
Link
269. Class; Prestige
[Johnson] expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to
visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and
said I really believed I should go and see the wall of China had
I not children, of whom it was my duty to take care. "Sir, (said
he,) by doing so, you would do what would be of importance in
raising your children to eminence. There would be a lustre
reflected upon them from your spirit and curiosity. They would
be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to
view the wall of China. I am serious, Sir."
Boswell: Life
Link
373. Class
"As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man
of intelligence must direct the man of labour."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Link
411. Class; Patriotism; Populism;
Subversion
"A patriot is necessarily and invariably a lover of the people.
But even this mark may sometimes deceive us. The people is a
very heterogeneous and confused mass of the wealthy and the poor,
the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad. Before we confer
on a man, who caresses the people, the title of patriot, we must
examine to what part of the people he directs his notice. It is
proverbially said, that he who dissembles his own character, may
be known by that of his companions. If the candidate of
patriotism endeavours to infuse right opinions into the higher
ranks, and, by their influence, to regulate the lower; if he
consorts chiefly with the wise, the temperate, the regular, and
the virtuous, his love of the people may be rational and honest.
But if his first or principal application be to the indigent, who
are always inflammable; to the weak, who are naturally
suspicious; to the ignorant, who are easily misled; and to the
prfligate, who have no hope but from mischief and confusion; let
his love of the people be no longer boasted. No man can
reasonably be thought a lover of his country, for roasting an ox,
or burning a boot, or attending the meeting at Mile-end, or
registering his name in the lumber troop. He may, among the
drunkards, be a hearty fellow, and, among sober handicraftmen, a
free-spoken gentleman; but he must have some better distinction,
before he is a patriot."
Johnson: The Patriot
Link
1,011. Class; Society
"It has long been ordained by Providence, for the conservation of
order in the immense variety of nature, and for the regular
propagation of the several classes of life with which the
elements are peopled, that every creature should be drawn by some
secret attraction to those of his own kind; and that not only
the gentle and domestic animals which naturally unite into
companies, or cohabit by pairs, should continue faithful to their
species; but even those ravenous and ferocious savages, which
Aristotle observes never to be gregarious, should range mountains
and deserts in search of one another, rather than pollute the
world with a monstrous birth."
Johnson: Rambler #99 (February 26, 1751)
Link
1,232. Class; Value
"If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is
undoubtedly the first and noblest science; yet we see the plough
driven, the clod broken, the manure spread, the seeds scattered,
and the harvest reaped, by men whom those that feed upon their
industry will never be persuaded to admit into the same rank with
heroes or with sages; and who, after all the confessions which
truth may extort in favour of their occupation, must be content
to fill up the lowest class of the commonwealth, to form the base
of the pyramid of subordination, and lie buried in obscurity
themselves, while they support all that is splendid, conspicuous,
or exalted."
Johnson: Rambler #145 (August 6, 1751)
Link
1,308. Class; Loneliness; Vanity
"It is not often difficult to find a suitable companion, if every
man would be content with such as he is qualified to please. But
if vanity tempts him to forsake his rank, and post himself
among those with whom no common interest or mutual pleasure can
ever unite him, he must always live in a state of unsocial
separation, without tenderness and without trust."
Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751)
Link
1,336. Bias; Class; Poverty;
Wealth
"The eye of wealth is elevated towards higher stations, and
seldom descends to examine the actions of those who are placed
below the level of its notice, and who in distant regions and
lower situations are struggling with distress, or toiling for
bread. Among the multitudes overwhelmed with insuperable
calamity, it is common to find those whom a very little
assistance would enable to support themselves with decency, and
who yet cannot obtain from near relations what they see
hourly lavished in ostentation, luxury, or frolic."
Johnson: Rambler #166 (October 19, 1751)
Link
1,341. Class; Debt;
Embarrassment
"It sometimes happens in the combinations of life, that important
services are performed by inferiors; but though their zeal and
activity may be paid by pecuniary rewards, they seldom excite
that flow of gratitude, or obtain that accumulation of
recompense, with which all think it their duty to acknowledge the
favour of those who descent to their assistance from a higher
elevation. To be obliged is to be in some respect inferior to
another; and few willingly indulge the memory of an action which
raises one whom they have always been accustomed to think below
them, but satisfy with faint praise and penurious payment, and
then drive it form their own minds, and endeavour to conceal it
from the knowledge of others."
Johnson: Rambler #166 (October 19, 1751)
Link
1,358. Class; Wealth
"Nothing has been longer observed than that a change of fortune
causes a change of manners."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
Link
