944. Ambition; Extravagance
"The desires of man increase with his acquisitions; every step
which he advances brings something within his view, which he did
not see before, and which, as soon as he sees it, he begins to
want. Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are
we supplied with every thing that nature can demand, than we sit
down to contrive artificial appetites."
Johnson: Idler #30 (November 11, 1758)
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945. Extravagance
"By ... restlessness of mind, every populous and wealthy city is
filled with innumerable employments, for which the greater part
of mankind is without a name; with artificers, whose labour is
exerted in producing such petty conveniences, that many shops are
furnished with instruments of which the use can hardly be found
without inquiry, but which he that once knows them quickly learns
to number among necessary things."
Johnson: Idler #30 (November 11, 1758)
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1,068. Ambition; Extravagance;
Satisfaction
"All the attainments possible in our present state are evidently
inadequate to our capacities of enjoyment; conquest serves no
purpose but that of kindling ambition, discovery has no effect
but of raising expectation; the gratification of one desire
encourages another; and after all our labours, studies, and
inquiries, we are continually at the same distance from the
contemplation of our schemes, have still some wish importunate to
be satisfied, and some faculty restless and turbulent for want of
its enjoyment."
Johnson: Rambler #103 (March 12, 1751)
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1,069. Extravagance; Knowledge
"The desire for knowledge, though often animated by extrinsic and
adventitious motives, seems on many occasions to operate without
subordination to any other principle; we are eager to see and
hear, without intention of referring our observations to a
further end; we climb a mountain for a prospect of the plain;
we run to the strand in a storm, that we may contemplate the
agitation of the water; we range from city to city, though we
profess neither architecture nor fortification; we cross seas
only to view nature in nakedness, or magnificence in ruins; we
are equally allured by novelty of every kind, by a desert or a
palace, a cataract or a cavern, by every thing rude and every
thing polished, every thing great and every thing little; we do
not see a thicket but with some temptation to enter it, or remark
an insect flying before us but with an inclination to pursue
it."
Johnson: Rambler #103 (March 12, 1751)
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