Other related topics at:
All In Your Mind
Effort
Virtue and Vice
58. Focus
"The dissipation of thought of which you complain, is nothing
more than the vacillation of a mind suspended between different
motives, and changing its direction as any motive gains or loses
strength. If you can kindle in your mind any strong desire, if
you can but keep predominant any wish for some particular
excellence or attainment, the gusts of imagination will break
away, without any effect upon your conduct, and commonly without
any traces left upon the memory."
Boswell: Life
Link
61. Diligence; Focus
"Resolve, and keep your resolution; choose, and pursue your
choice. If you spend this day in study, you will find yourself
still more able to study to-morrow; not that you are to expect
that you shall all at once obtain a complete victory. Depravity
is not very easily overcome. Resolution will sometimes relax,
and diligence will sometimes be interrupted; but let no
accidental surprise or deviation, whether short or long, dispose
you to despondency."
Boswell: Life
Link
390. Focus
"Nothing is difficult, when gain and honour unite their
influence."
Johnson: Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting
Falkland's Islands
Link
493. Focus; Madness
"There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate
over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his
will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command. No man
will be found in whose mind airy motions do not sometimes
tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of
sober probability."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
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)
Link
831. Excellence; Focus
"Those ... who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one
pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier
terms."
Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets)
Link
975. Attention; Focus
"It is certain that, with or without our consent, many of the few
moments allotted us will slide imperceptibly away, and that the
mind will break from confinement to its stated task, into sudden
excursions. Severe and connected attention is preserved but for
a short time; and when a man shuts himself up in his closet, and
bends his thoughts to the discussion of any abstruse question, he
will find his faculties continually stealing away to more
pleasing entertainments. He often perceives himself transported,
he knows not how, to distant tracts of thought, and returns to
his first object as from a dream, without knowing when he forsook
it, or how long he has been abstracted from it."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link
976. Attention; Focus;
Perseverance
"It ... frequently happens that the most recluse are not the most
vigorous prosecutors of study. Many impose upon the world, and
many upon themselves, by an appearance of severe and exemplary
diligence, when they, in reality, give themselves up to the
luxury of fancy, please their minds with regulating the past or
planning out the future, place themselves at will in varied
situations of happiness, and slumber away their days in voluntary
visions. In the journey of life, some are left behind because
they are naturally feeble and slow, some because they miss the
way, and many because they leave it by choice, and, instead of
pressing onward with a steady pace, delight themselves with
momentary deviations, turn aside to pluck every flower, and
repose in every shade."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link
1,140. Career Choice; Curiosity;
Focus; Perspective
"Even of those who have dedicated themselves to knowledge, the
far greater part have confined their curiosity to a few objects,
and have very little inclination to promote any fame but that of
which their own studies entitle them to partake. The naturalist
has no desire to know the opinions or conjectures of the
philosopher; the botanist looks upon the astronomer as a being
unworthy of his regard; the lawyer scarcely hears the name of a
physician without contempt; and he that is growing great and
happy by electrifying a bottle, wonders how the world can be
engaged by trifling prattle about war or peace."
Johnson: Rambler #118 (May 4, 1751)
Link
1,182. Choice; Focus
"There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory
application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held
in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between
different purposes without determination."
Johnson: Rambler #132 (June 22, 1751)
Link
1,192. Choice; Focus
"He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will
frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has
precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail,
and harass himself without advancing."
Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751)
Link
1,463. Focus; Implementation;
Perseverance
"They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes
of expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice
as make all their actions fortuitous, destroy the value of their
friendship, obstruct the efficacy of their virtues, and set them
below the meanest of those who persist in their resolutions,
execute what they design, and perform what they have
promised."
Johnson: Rambler #201 (February 18, 1752)
Link
1,477. Focus
"The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its
view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now
before it."
Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752)
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