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Virtue and Vice
726. Complacency; Happiness
"He that is happy, by whatever means, desires nothing but the
continuance of happiness."
Johnson: Idler #18 (August 12, 1758)
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859. Complacency; Excellence
"What is easy is seldom excellent."
Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets)
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977. Attention; Complacency;
Delusion
"There is nothing more fatal to a man whose business is to think
than to have learned the art of regaling his mind with ... airy
gratifications. Other vices or follies are restrained by fear,
reformed by admonition, or rejected by the conviction which the
comparison of our conduct with that of others may in time
produce. But this invisible riot of the mind, this secret
prodigality of being, is secure from detection and fearless of
reproach. The dreamer retires to his apartments, shuts out the
cares and interruptions of mankind, and abandons himself to his
own fancy; new worlds rise up before him, one image is followed
by another, and a long succession of delights dances around him.
He is at last called back to life by nature or by custom; and
enters peevish into society, because he cannot model it to his
own will."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
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1,110. Complacency; Diligence; Praise;
Success
"It frequently happens that applause abates diligence. Whosoever
finds himself to have performed more than was demanded will be
contented to spare the labour of unnecessary performances, and
sit down to enjoy at ease his superfluities of honour. He whom
success has made confident of his abilities quickly claims the
privilege of negligence, and looks contemptuously on the gradual
advances of a rival, whom he imagines himself able to leave
behind whenever he shall again summon his force to the contest.
But long intervals of pleasure dissipate attention and weaken
constancy; nor is it easy for him that has sunk from diligence
into sloth to rouse out of his lethargy, to recollect his
notions, rekindle his curiosity, and engage with his former
ardour in the toils of his study."
Johnson: Rambler #111 (April 9, 1751)
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1,112. Complacency; Diligence
"A thousand beauties in their first blossom, by an imprudent
exposure to the open world, have suddenly withered at the blast
of infamy; and men who might have subjected new regions to the
empire of learning, have been lured by the praise of their first
productions from academical retirement, and wasted their days in
vice and dependance. The virgin who too soon aspires to
celebrity and conquest perishes by childish vanity, ignorant
credulity, or guiltless indiscretion. The genius who catches at
laurels and preferment before his time, mocks the hopes that he
had excited, and loses those years which might have been most
usefully employed; the years of youth, of spirit, and
vivacity."
Johnson: Rambler #111 (April 9, 1751)
Link
1,270. Ambition; Complacency;
Flattery
"The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that
he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of
honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be
gained without the toil of merit."
Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751)
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1,598. Life; Complacency; Effort
"To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest
human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer:
but he whose life has passed without a contest, and who can boast
neither success nor merit, can survey himself only as a useless
filler of existence; ad if he is content with his own character,
must owe his satisfaction to insensibility."
Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753)
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1,649. Complacency; Satisfaction
"In order to the right conduct of our lives, we must remember,
that we are not born to please ourselves. He that studies simply
his own satisfaction, will always find the proper business of his
station too hard or easy for him."
Johnson: Adventurer #128 (January 26, 1754)
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1,729. Complacency; Corruption
"Nothing is more fatal to happiness or virtue, than that
confidence which flatters us with an opinion of our own strength,
and, by assuring us of the power of retreat, precipitates us into
hazard."
Johnson: Idler #52 (April 14, 1759)
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1,766. Complacency; Ego Defenses;
Vanity
"Vanity inclines us to find faults any where rather than in
ourselves."
Johnson: Idler #70 (August 18, 1759)
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