244. Value "Is getting a hundred thousand pounds a proof of excellence? That has been done by a scoundrel commissary." Boswell: Life Link 253. Value Fitzpatrick: "I have been looking at this famous antique marble dog of Mr. Jennings, valued at a thousand guineas, said to be Alcibiades's dog." ... Burke: "A thousand guineas! The representation of no animal whatever is worth so much. At this rate a dead dog would indeed be better than a living lion." Johnson: "Sir, it is not the worth of the thing, but of the skill in forming it which is so highly estimated. Every thing that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. The first man who balanced a straw upon his nose; Johnson, who rode upon three horses at a time; in short, all such men deserved the applause of mankind, not on account of the use of what they did, but of the dexterity which they exhibited." Boswell: Life Link 691. Value "In the esteem of uncorrupted reason, what is of most use is of most value." Johnson: Rambler #60 (October 13, 1750) Link 739. Effort; Quality; Value "Where there is no difficulty there is no praise." Johnson: Dryden (Lives of the Poets) Link 873. Value; Virtue; Wisdom "It is ... the business of wisdom and virtue to select, among numberless objects striving for our notice, such as may enable us to exalt our reason, extend our views, and secure our happiness. But this choice is to be made with very little regard to rareness or frequency; for nothing is valuable merely because it is either rare or common, but because it is adapted to some useful purpose, and enables us to supply some deficiency of our natures." Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750) 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 1,233. Value "Remuneratory honours are proportioned at once to the usefulness and difficulty of performances, and are properly adjusted by comparison of the mental and corporeal abilities which they appear to employ. That work, however necessary, which is carried on only by muscular strength and manual dexterity, is not of equal esteem, in the consideration of rational beings, with the tasks that exercise the intellectual powers, and require the active vigour of imagination, or the gradual and laborious investigations of reason." Johnson: Rambler #145 (August 6, 1751) Link 1,368. Envy; Value "Every possession is endeared by novelty; every gratification is exaggerated by desire. It is difficult not to estimate what is lately gained above its real value; it is impossible not to annex greater happiness to that condition from which we are unwillingly excluded than nature has qualified us to obtain." Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751) Link 1,594. Desire; Value "For a mind diseased with vain longings after unattainable advantages, no medicine can be prescribed, but an impartial enquiry into the real worth of that which is so ardently desired. It is well known, how much the mind, as well as the eye, is deceived by distance; and, perhaps, it will be found, that of many imagined blessings it may be doubted, whether he that wants or possesses them has more reason to be satisfied with his lot." Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753) Link 1,606. Desires; Value "To prize every thing according to its real use ought to be the aim of a rational being. There are few things which can much conduce to happiness, and, therefore, few things to be ardently desired." Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753) Link 1,856. Reading; Value "Compositions merely pretty have the fate of other pretty things, and are quitted in time for something useful: they are flowers fragrant and fair, but of short duration; or they are blossoms to be valued only as they foretell fruits." Johnson: Waller (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,868. Desires; Value "Value is more frequently raised by scarcity than by use. That which lay neglected when it was common, rises in estimation as its quantity becomes less. We seldom learn the true want of what we have, till it is discovered that we can have no more." Johnson: Idler #103 (April 5, 1760) Link