Other related topics at:
Careers
434. Academia;
Learning
"The life that is devoted to knowledge passes silently away, and
is very little diversified by events. To talk in public, to
think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer
inquiries, is the business of a scholar. He wanders about the
world without pomp or terror, and is neither known nor valued
but by men like himself."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
568. Academia; Effort
"That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at
least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can
require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the
character of a scholar; since they cannot but know that every
human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of
its attainment."
Johnson: Rambler #21 (May 29, 1750)
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1,210. Academia; Ignorance; Learning
(Practicality)
"Nothing has so exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule
as their ignorance of things which are known to all but
themselves. Those who have been taught to consider the
institutions of the schools as giving the last perfection to
human abilities are surprised to see men wrinkled with study, yet
wanting to be instructed in the minute circumstances of
propriety, or the necessary form of daily transaction; and
quickly shake off their reverence for modes of education which
they find to produce no ability above the rest of mankind."
Johnson: Rambler #137 (July 9, 1751)
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1,211. Academia; Socialization
"It is too common for those who have been bred to scholastic
professions, and passed much of their time in academies where
nothing but learning confers honours, to disregard every other
qualification, and to imagine that they shall find mankind ready
to pay homage to their knowledge, and to crowd about them for
instruction. They therefore step out from their cells into the
open world with all the confidence of authority and dignity of
importance; they look round about them at once with ignorance and
scorn, on a race of beings to whom they are equally unknown and
equally contemptible, but whose manners they must imitate, and
with whose opinions they must comply, if they desire to pass
their time happily among them."
Johnson: Rambler #137 (July 9, 1751)
Link
1,217. Academia
"Statesmen and generals may grow great by unexpected accidents,
and a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, neither procured
nor forseen by themselves; but reputation in the learned world
must be the effect of industry and capacity."
Johnson: Boerhaave
Link
1,514. Academia; Beauty;
Competition
"The friendship of students and of beauties is for the most part
equally sincere, and equally durable: as both depend for
happiness on the regard of others, on that which the value arises
merely from comparison, they are both exposed to perpetual
jealousies, and both incessantly employed in schemes to intercept
the praises of each other."
Johnson: Adventurer #45 (March 27, 1753)
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