Other related topics at:
Peoples and Places
263. Cities; Country life
"No wise man will go to live in the country, unless he has
something to do which can be better done in the country. For
instance, if he is to shut himself up for a year to study
science, it is better to look out to the fields, than to an
opposite wall. Then, if a man walks out in the country, there is
nobody to keep him from walking in again: but if a man walks out
in London, he is not sure when he will walk in again. A great
city is, to be sure, the school for studying life."
Boswell: Life
Link
311. Country Life
Our conversation turned upon living in the country, which
Johnson, whose melancholy mind required the dissipation of quick
successive variety, had habituated himself to consider as a kind
of mental imprisonment. "Yet, Sir, (said I,) there are many
people who are content to live in the country." Johnson:
"Sir, it is in the intellectual world as in the physical world;
we are told by natural philosophers that a body is at rest in the
place that is fit for it; they who are content to live in the
country, are fit for the country."
Boswell: Life
Link
1,201. Country Life; Writing
"There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the
happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader
with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur
of rivulets."
Johnson: Rambler #135 (July 2, 1751)
Link
1,785. Boredom; Cities; Country
Life
"They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great
city, know their desire to return is little more than the
restlessness of a vacant mind, that they are not so much led by
hope as driven by disgust, and wish rather to leave the country
than to see the town."
Johnson: Idler #80 (October 27, 1759)
Link
1,787. Cities; Country Life;
Humanity
"The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great
measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one
place like another; to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep,
are the same in London as in the country."
Johnson: Idler #80 (October 27, 1759)
Link
