451. Fallibility; Moral
Instruction
"Be not too hasty ... to trust, or to admire, the teachers of
morality; they discourse like angels, but they live like
men."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
457. Fallibility; Families
"How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their
own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner
as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their
lives."
Johnson: Rasselas [the princess Nekayah]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
574. Fallibility; Self-Knowledge
"Every error in human conduct must arise from ignorance in
ourselves, either perpetual or temporary; and happen either
because we do not know what is best and fittest, or because our
knowledge is at the time of action not present to the mind."
Johnson: Rambler #24 (June 9, 1750)
Link
598. Fallibility; Offense;
Pride
"The resentment which the discovery of a fault or folly produces
must bear a certain proportion to our pride, and will regularly
be more acrimonious as pride is more immediately the principle of
action."
Johnson: Rambler #40 (August 4, 1750)
Link
599. Fallibility; Offense; Pride;
Vanity
"In whatever ... we wish or imagine ourselves to excel, we shall
always be displeased to have our claims to reputation be
disputed, and more displeased, if the accomplishment be such as
can expect reputation only for its reward."
Johnson: Rambler #40 (August 4, 1750)
Link
868. Fallibility; Moral
Instruction
"He, by whose writings the heart is rectified, the appetites
counteracted, and the passions repressed, may be considered as
not unprofitable to the great republic of humanity, even though
his behaviour should not always exemplify his rules."
Johnson: Rambler #77 (December 11, 1750)
Link
1,050. Fallibility; Humanity;
Humility
"Faults and defects every work of man must have."
Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets)
Link
1,296. Fallibility; Moral
Instruction
"If any judgement be made from his [Addison's] books of
his moral character nothing will be found but purity and
excellence. Knowledge of mankind indeed, less extensive than
that of Addison, will shew that to write and to live are very
different. Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise
it."
Johnson: Addison (Lives of the Poets)
Link
1,585. Faith; Fallibility; Life
"Life is not the object of science: we see a little, very little;
and what is beyond we can only conjecture. If we enquire of
those who have gone before us, we receive small satisfaction;
some have travelled life without observation, and some willingly
mislead us. The only thought, therefore, on which we can repose
with comfort, is that which presents to us the care of
Providence, whose eye takes in the whole of things, and under
whose direction all involuntary errours will terminate in
happiness."
Johnson: Adventurer #107 (November 13, 1753)
Link
