225. Conversation; Conviviality
When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without
hearing one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered,
he said, "Sir, there seldom is any such conversation."
Boswell: "Why then meet at table?" Johnson:
"Why, to eat and drink together, and to promote kindness; and,
Sir, this is better done when there is no solid conversation;
for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get into bad
humour, or some of the company who are not capable of such
conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was
for this reason, Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked bawdy
at his table, because in that all could join."
Boswell: Life
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453. Conviviality; Good Humor
"There are few doors through which liberality, joined with good
humor, cannot find its way."
Johnson: Rasselas [Narrator]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
816. Conviviality; Society
"It is necessary ... to cultivate an habitual alacrity and
cheerfulness, that in whatever state we may be placed by
Providence, whether we are appointed to confer or receive
benefits, to implore or to afford protection, we may secure the
love of those with whom we transact."
Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750)
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904. Conviviality; Winter
"The winter ... is generally celebrated as the proper season for
domestic merriment and gaiety. We are seldom invited by the
votaries of pleasure to look abroad for any other purpose than
that we may shrink back with more satisfaction to our coverts,
and when we have heard the howl of the tempest, and felt the
gripe of the frost, congratulate each other with more gladness
upon a close room, an easy chair, and a smoking dinner."
Johnson: Rambler #80 (December 22, 1750)
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906. Conviviality; Winter
"The rigour of winter brings generally to the same fireside those
who, by the opposition of inclinations, or differences of
employment, moved in various directions through the various parts
of the year; and when they have met, and find it their mutual
interest to remain together, they endear each other by mutual
continuance of the social season, with all its bleakness and all
its severities."
Johnson: Rambler #80 (December 22, 1750)
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979. Conversation; Conviviality;
Involvement; Society
"After the exercises which the health of the body requires, and
which have themselves a natural tendency to actuate and
invigorate the mind, the most eligible amusement of a rational
being seems to be that interchange of thoughts which is practised
in free and easy conversation; where suspicion is banished by
experience, and emulation by benevolence; where every man speaks
with no other restraint than unwillingness to offend, and hears
with no other disposition than desire to be pleased."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
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980. Conviviality; Love; Society
"A wise and good man is never so amiable as in his unbended and
familiar intervals. Heroic generosity or philosophical
discoveries may compel veneration and respect, but love always
implies some kind of natural or voluntary equality, and is only
to be excited by that levity and cheerfulness which disencumbers
all minds from awe and solicitude, invites the modest to freedom,
and exalts the timorous to confidence. This easy gaiety is
certain to please, whatever the character of him that exerts it;
if our superiors descend from their elevation, we love them for
lessening the distance at which we are placed below them; and
inferiors, from whom we can receive no lasting advantage, will
always keep our affections while their sprightliness and mirth
contribute to our pleasure."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
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981. Conviviality
"Every man finds himself differently affected by the sight of
fortresses of war, and palaces of pleasure; we look on the
height and strength of the bulwarks with a kind of gloomy
satisfaction, for we cannot think of defence without admitting
images of danger; but we range delighted and jocund through the
gay apartments of the palace, because nothing is impressed by
them on the mind but joy and festivity. Such is the difference
between great and amiable characters; with protectors we are
safe, with companions we are happy."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
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999. Cards; Conviviality; Society
"I am very sorry I have not learned to play at cards. It is very
useful in life: it generates kindness and consolidates
society."
Boswell: Tour to the Hebrides
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1,017. Conviviality; Friendship
"That friendship may at once be fond and lasting, a conformity of
inclinations is necessary. No man can have much kindness for him
by whom he does not believe himself esteemed, and nothing so
evidently proves esteem as imitation. That benevolence is always
strongest which arises from participation in the same pleasures,
since we are naturally most willing to revive in our minds the
memory of persons with whom the idea of enjoyment is connected.
It is commonly, therefore, to little purpose, that anyone
endeavours to ingratiate himself with such as he cannot accompany
in their amusements and diversions. Men have been known to rise
to favour and to fortune only by being skilful in the sports with
which their patron happened to be delighted, by concurring with
his taste for some particular species of curiosities, by
relishing the same wine, or applauding the same cookery. Even
those whom wisdom or virtue have placed above regard to such
petty recommendations, must nevertheless be gained by similitude
of manners."
Johnson: Rambler #99 (February 26, 1751)
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1,115. Conviviality; Good Humor
"In things which are not immediately subject to religious or
moral consideration, it is dangerous to be too long or too
rigidly in the right."
Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751)
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1,121. Conviviality; Society
"That it is every man's interest to be pleased will need little
proof: that it is his interest to please others experience will
inform him."
Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751)
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1,407. Conviviality; Curiosity;
Humility; Progress
"I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine
the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use.
It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and
the vague excursions of mind set upon discovery, that any
advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be
disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged
with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed
to inspire emulation, and their miscarriage taught others the way
to success.
"But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought
not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally
requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure;
the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites;
and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind."
Johnson: Rambler #180 (December 7, 1751)
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1,433. Conviviality; Envy; Wit
"Few are more frequently envied than those who have the power of
forcing attention wherever they come, whose entrance is
considered as a promise of felicity, and whose departure is
lamented like the recess of the sun from northern climates, as
a privation of all that enlivens fancy or inspirits gaiety."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,434. Conversation; Conviviality;
Wit
"The pleasure which men are able to give in conversation holds no
stated proportion to their knowledge or their virtue. Many find
their way to the tables and parties of those who never considered
them as of the least importance in any other place; we have all,
at one time or other been content to love those whom we could not
esteem, and been persuaded to try the dangerous experiment of
admitting him for a companion whom we knew to be too ignorant for
a counsellor, and too treacherous for a friend."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,435. Conviviality
"I question whether some abatement of character is not necessary
to general acceptance. Few spend their time with much
satisfaction under the eye of uncontestable superiority; and
therefore, among those whose presence is courted at assemblies
of jollity, there are seldom found men eminently distinguished
for powers or acquisitions."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,436. Conversation
"No style of conversation is more extensively acceptable than the
narrative."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,438. Conviviality
"Many, without being able to attain any general character of
excellence, have some single art of entertainment, which serves
them as a passport through the world."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,439. Admiration; Conviviality;
Love
"It is always necessary to be loved, but not always necessary to
be reverenced."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,460. Conviviality; Offense
"Of those with whom nature and virtue oblige us to converse, some
are ignorant of the arts of pleasing, and offend when they
design to caress; some are negligent, and gratify themselves
without regard to the quiet of another; some, perhaps, are
malicious, and feel no greater satisfaction in prosperity than
that of raising envy and trampling inferiority. But whatever
be the motive of insult, it is always best to overlook it;
for folly scarcely can deserve resentment, and malice is
punished by neglect."
Johnson: Rambler #200 (February 15, 1752)
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1,758. Conviviality
"I had been used to consider laughter as the effect of merriment;
but I soon learned that it is one of the arts of adulation,
and, from laughing only to shew that I was pleased, I now
began to laugh when I wished to please."
Johnson: Idler #64 (July 7, 1759) [from a fictional
correspondent, "Tim Ranger"]
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