433. Community
"All skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has
owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has
received."
Johnson: Rasselas [Rasselas]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
662. Community
"I have ... frequently looked with
wonder, and now and then with
pity, at the thoughtlessness with which some alienate from
themselves the affections of all whom chance, business, or
inclination brings in their way. When we see a man pursuing some
darling interest, without much regard to the opinion of the
world, we justly consider him as corrupt and dangerous, but are
not long in discovering his motives: we see him actuated by
passions which are hard to be resisted, and deluded by
appearances which have dazzled stronger eyes. But the greater
part of those who set mankind at defiance by hourly irritation,
and who live but to infuse malignity and multiply enemies, have
no hopes to foster, no designs to promote, nor any expectations
of attaining power by insolence, or of climbing to greatness by
trampling on others. They give up all the sweets of kindness for
peevishness, petulance, or gloom; and alienate the world by
neglect of the common forms of civility, and breach of the
established laws of conversation."
Johnson: Rambler #56 (September 29, 1750)
Link
804. Community; Economics;
Society
"Whatever body, and whatever society, wastes more than it
acquires, must gradually decay; and every being that continues
to be fed, and ceases to labour, takes away something from the
publick stock."
Johnson: Idler #22 (September 16, 1758)
Link
897. Community; Deceit; Society
"Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular
injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that
confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence
of society."
Johnson: Rambler #79 (December 18, 1750)
Link
1,012. Community; Goodness;
Society
"If man were to feel no incentives to kindness, more than his
general tendency to congenial nature, Babylon or London, with all
their multitudes, would have to him the desolation of a
wilderness; his affections, not compressed into a narrower
compass, would vanish like elemental fire, in boundless
evaporation; he would languish in perpetual insensibility, and
though he might, perhaps, in the first vigour of youth, amuse
himself with the fresh enjoyments of life, yet, when curiosity
should cease, and alacrity subside, he would abandon himself to
the fluctuations of chance, without expecting help against any
calamity, or feeling any wish for the happiness of others."
Johnson: Rambler #99 (February 26, 1751)
Link
1,073. Community; Society; Team
Work
"The apparent insufficiency of every individual to his own
happiness or safety compels us to seek from one another
assistance and support. The necessity of joint efforts for the
execution of any great or extensive design, the variety of powers
disseminated in the species, and the proportion between the
defects and excellences of different persons demand an
interchange of help and communication of intelligence, and, by
frequent reciprocations of beneficence, unite mankind in society
and friendship."
Johnson: Rambler #104 (March 16, 1751)
Link
