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All In Your Mind
Virtue and Vice
218. Fear; Impotence
"The characteristic of our own government at present is
imbecility. The magistrate dare not call the guards for fear of
being hanged. The guards will not come, for fear of being given
up to the blind rage of popular juries."
Boswell: Life
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388. Fear; Government
"But quiet and security are now at an end. Our vigilance is
quickened, and our comprehension is enlarged. We not only see
events in their causes, but before their causes; we hear the
thunder while the sky is clear, and see the mine sprung before it
is dug. Political wisdom has, by the force of English genius,
been improved, at last, not only to political intuition, but to
political prescience.
"But it cannot, I am afraid, be said, that as we are grown wise,
we are made happy. It is said of those who have the wonderful
power called second sight, that they seldom see any thing but
evil: political second sight has the same effect; we hear of
nothing but an alarming crisis, of violated rights, and expiring
liberties. The morning rises upon new wrongs, and the dreamer
passes the night in imaginary shackles."
Johnson: The False Alarm
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409. Fear; Patriotism
"It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to
observe all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a
distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate
his fears, and to sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the
approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm, when there is no
enemy; he never terrifies his countrymen till he is terrified
himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of
him, who professes to be disturbed by incredibilities..."
Johnson: The Patriot
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583. Fear; Melancholy;
Over-Anticipation
"The concern of things to come that is so justly censured is not
the result of those general reflections on the variableness of
fortune, the uncertainty of life, and the universal insecurity of
all human acquisitions, which must always be suggested by the
view of the world; but such a desponding anticipation of
misfortune as fixes the mind upon scenes of gloom and melancholy,
and makes fear predominate every imagination."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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584. Fear; Over-Anticipation
"Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason
that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with
too much dejection."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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585. Fear; Hope
"As hope enlarges happiness, fear aggravates calamity."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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586. Fear
"It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of
possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his
desire, and invigorated his pursuit; nor has any man found the
evils of life so formidable in reality as they were described to
him by his own imagination: every species of distress brings
with it some peculiar supports, some unforeseen means of
resistance or power of enduring."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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587. Fear
"All fear is in itself painful; and when it conduces not to
safety is painful without use. Every consideration, therefore,
by which groundless terrors may be removed, adds something to
human happiness."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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588. Fear; Focus
"It is ... not unworthy of remark that, in proportion as our
cares are employed on the future, they are abstracted from the
present, from the only time which we can call our own, and of
which, if we neglect the apparent duties, to make provision
against visionary attacks, we shall certainly counteract our own
purpose; for he, doubtless, mistakes his true interest, who
thinks that he can increase his safety when he impairs his
virtue."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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1,072. Action/Inaction; Effort; Fear;
Novelty
"There is no snare more dangerous to busy and excursive minds
than the cobwebs of petty inquisitiveness, which entangle them in
trivial employments and minute studies, and detain them in a
middle state, between the tediousness of total inactivity and the
fatigue of laborious efforts, enchant them at once with ease and
novelty, and vitiate them with the luxury of learning. The
necessity of doing something and the fear of undertaking much
sink the historian to a genealogist, the philosopher to a
journalist of the weather, and the mathematician to a constructor
of dials."
Johnson: Rambler #103 (March 12, 1751)
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1,163. Fear
"Fear is a passion which every man feels so frequently
predominant in his own breast, that he is unwilling to hear it
censured with great asperity."
Johnson: Rambler #126 (June 1, 1751)
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1,164. Fear
"Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil;
but its duty, like that of other passions, is not
to overbear reason, but to assist it; nor should it
be suffered to tyrannize in the imagination, to raise
phantoms of horror, or beset life with supernumerary
distresses."
Johnson: Rambler #126 (June 1, 1751)
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1,165. Death; Fear; Mortality
"To be always afraid of losing life is, indeed, scarcely to enjoy
a life that can deserve the care of preservation. He that once
indulges idle fears will never be at rest. Our present state
admits only of a kind of negative security; we must conclude
ourselves safe when we see no danger, or none inadequate to our
powers of opposition. Death, indeed, continually hovers about
us, but hovers commonly unseen, unless we sharpen our sight by
useless curiosity."
Johnson: Rambler #126 (June 1, 1751)
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1,189. Fear; Procrastination
"Laziness is commonly associated with timidity. Either fear
originally prohibits endeavours by infusing despair of success;
or the frequent failure of irresolute struggles, and the constant
desire of avoiding labour, impress by degrees false terrors on
the mind."
Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751)
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1,190. Fear
"Fear, whether natural or acquired, when once it has full
possession of the fancy, never fails to employ it upon visions of
calamity, such as, if they are not dissipated by useful
employment, will soon overcast it with horrors, and imbitter life
not only with those miseries by which all earthly beings are
really more or less tormented, but with those which do not yet
exist, and which can only be discerned by the perspicacity of
cowardice."
Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751)
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1,198. Caution; Fear; Pioneers
"In questions difficult or dangerous, it is indeed natural to
repose upon authority, and, when fear happens to predominate,
upon the authority of those whom we do not in general think wiser
than ourselves."
Johnson: Rambler #135 (July 2, 1751)
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1,207. Awe; Fear; Intimidation
"Long calculations or complex diagrams affright the timorous and
unexperienced from a second view; but if we have skill
sufficient to analyze them into simple principles, it will be
discovered that our fear was groundless. Divide and
conquer is a principle equally just in science as in policy.
Complication is a species of confederacy, which, while it
continues united, bids defiance to the most active and vigorous
intellect; but of which every member is separately weak, and
which may, therefore, be quickly subdued if it can once be
broken."
Johnson: Rambler #137 (July 9, 1751)
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