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All In Your Mind
Effort
Virtue and Vice
975. Attention; Focus
"It is certain that, with or without our consent, many of the few
moments allotted us will slide imperceptibly away, and that the
mind will break from confinement to its stated task, into sudden
excursions.
Severe and connected attention is
preserved but for
a short time; and when a man shuts himself up in his closet, and
bends his thoughts to the discussion of any abstruse question, he
will find his faculties continually stealing away to more
pleasing entertainments. He often perceives himself transported,
he knows not how, to distant tracts of thought, and returns to
his first object as from a dream, without knowing when he forsook
it, or how long he has been abstracted from it."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link
976. Attention; Focus;
Perseverance
"It ... frequently happens that the most recluse are not the most
vigorous prosecutors of study. Many impose upon the world, and
many upon themselves, by an appearance of severe and exemplary
diligence, when they, in reality, give themselves up to the
luxury of fancy, please their minds with regulating the past or
planning out the future, place themselves at will in varied
situations of happiness, and slumber away their days in voluntary
visions. In the journey of life, some are left behind because
they are naturally feeble and slow, some because they miss the
way, and many because they leave it by choice, and, instead of
pressing onward with a steady pace, delight themselves with
momentary deviations, turn aside to pluck every flower, and
repose in every shade."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link
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)
977
1,061. Attention; Conversation;
Wit
"Perhaps no kind of superiority is more flattering or alluring
than that which is conferred by the powers of conversation, by
extemporaneous sprightliness of fancy, copiousness of language,
and fertility of sentiment. In other exertions of genius the
greater part of the praise is unknown and unenjoyed; the writer,
indeed, spreads his reputation to a wider extent, but receives
little pleasure or advantage from the diffusions of his name, and
only obtains a kind of nominal sovereignty over regions which pay
no tribute. The colloquial wit has always his own radiance
reflected on himself, and enjoys all the pleasure which he
bestows; he finds his power confessed by every one that
approaches him, sees friendship kindling with rapture, and
attention swelling into praise."
Johnson: Rambler #101 (March 5, 1751) -- from Hilarius, a
fictional correspondent
Link
1,062. Attention
"The desire which every man feels of importance and esteem is so
much gratified by finding an assembly, at his entrance,
brightened with gladness and hushed with expectation, that the
recollection of such distinctions can scarcely fail to be
pleasing whenever it is innocent."
Johnson: Rambler #101 (March 5, 1751) -- from Hilarius, a
fictional correspondent
Link
1,133. Attention
"It is not much of life that is spent in close attention to any
important duty. Many hours of every day are suffered to fly away
without any traces left upon the intellects."
Johnson: Idler #32 (November 25, 1752)
Link
1,781. Attention; Memory;
Reading
"The true art of memory is the art of attention. No man will read
with much advantage, who is not able, at pleasure, to evacuate
his mind, or who brings not to his author an intellect defecated
and pure, neither turbid with care, nor agitated by pleasure. If
the repositories of thought are already full, what can they
receive? If the mind is employed on the past or future, the book
will be held before the eyes in vain."
Johnson: Idler #74 (September 15, 1759)
Link
1,782. Attention; Memory;
Reading
"What is read with delight is commonly retained, because pleasure
always secures attention but the books which are consulted by
occasional necessity, and perused with impatience, seldom leave
any traces on the mind."
Johnson: Idler #74 (September 15, 1759)
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