Other related topics at: Project Steps 432. Caution; Pioneers; Vision "Nothing ... will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome." Johnson: Rasselas [The Artist] Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas. Link 612. Ambition; Planning; Vanity; Vision "The general error of those who possess powerful and elevated understandings is, that they form schemes of too great extent, and flatter themselves too hastily with success; they feel their own force to be great, and, by the complacency with which every man surveys himself, imagine it still greater: they therefore look out for undertakings worthy of their abilities, and engage in them with very little precaution; for they imagine that, without premeditated measures, they shall be able to find expedients in all difficulties. They are naturally apt to consider all prudential maxims as below their regard, to treat with contempt those securities and resources which others know themselves obliged to provide, and disdain to accomplish their purposes by established means and common gradations." Johnson: Rambler #43 (August 14, 1750) Link 616. Perseverance; Vision "...those who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reason and their spirit the power of persisting in their purposes; acquire the art of sapping what they cannot batter; and the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance by obstinate attacks." Johnson: Rambler #43 (August 14, 1750) Link 617. Perseverance; Vision "...whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised." Johnson: Rambler #43 (August 14, 1750) Link 819. Perfectionism; Vision "It is incident ... to men of vigorous imagination to please themselves too much with futurities, and to fret because those expectations are disappointed which should never have been formed. Knowledge and genius are often enemies to quiet, by suggesting ideas of excellence, which men and the performances of men cannot attain." Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750) Link 934. Perseverance; Progress; Vision "It is impossible to determine the limits of inquiry, or to foresee what consequences a new discovery can produce. He who suffers not his faculties to lie torpid has a chance, whatever be his employment, of doing good to his fellow creatures. The man that first ranged the woods in search of medicinal springs, or climbed the mountains for salutary plants, has undoubtedly merited the gratitude of posterity, how much soever his frequent miscarriages might excite the scorn of his contemporaries. If what appears little be universally despised, nothing greater can be attained; for all that is great was at first little, and rose to its present bulk by gradual accessions and accumulated labours." Johnson: Rambler #83 (January 1, 1751) Link 1,158. Creativity; Vision "Imagination, a licentious and vagrant faculty, unsusceptible of limitations and impatient of restraint, has always endeavoured to baffle the logician, to perplex the confines of distinction, and burst the enclosures of regularity." Johnson: Rambler #125 (May 28, 1751) Link 1,167. Disappointment; Perseverance; Vision "Some hindrances will be found in every road of life, but he that fixes his eyes upon any thing at a distance necessarily loses sight of all that fills up the intermediate space, and therefore sets forward with alacrity and confidence, nor suspects a thousand obstacles by which he afterwards finds his passage embarrassed and obstructed. Some are, indeed, stopped at once in their career by a sudden shock of calamity, or diverted to a different direction by the cross impulse of some violent passion; but far the greater part languish by slow degrees, deviate at first into slight obliquities, and themselves scarcely perceive at what time their ardour forsook them, or when they lost sight of their original design." Johnson: Rambler #127 (June 4, 1751) Link 1,176. Progress; Vision "Whatever has been effected for convenience or elegance, while it was yet unknown, was believed impossible; and therefore would never have been attempted, had not some, more daring than the rest, adventured to bid defiance to prejudice and censure." Johnson: Rambler #129 (June 11, 1751) Link 1,194. Over-Anticipation; Perfectionism; Vision "He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage and possibilities of improvement, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,482. Vision "Few moments are more pleasing than those in which the mind is concerting measures for a new undertaking. From the first hint that wakens the fancy, till the hour of actual execution, all is improvement and progress, triumph and felicity. Every hour brings additions to the original scheme, suggests some new expedient to secure success, or discovers consequential advantages not hitherto foreseen. While preparations are made, and materials accumulated, day glided after day through elysian prospects, and the heart dances to the song of hope." Johnson: Rambler #207 (March 10, 1752) Link 1,483. Planning; Speculation; Vision   Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time in the calm amusement of contriving what they never attempt or hope to execute.   Others, not able to feast their imagination with pure ideas, advance somewhat nearer to the grossness of action, with great diligence collect whatever is requisite to their design, and after a thousand researches and consultations, are snatched away by death, as they stand in procinctu waiting for a proper oppurtunity to begin. Johnson: Rambler #207 (March 10, 1752) Link 1,501. Implementation; Speculation; Vision "It is well known, that many things appear plausible in speculation, which can never be reduced to practice; and that of the numberless projects that have flattered mankind with theoretical speciousness, few have served any other purpose than to show the ingenuity of their contrivers." Johnson: Adventurer #45 (March 27, 1753) Link