Other related topics at:
All In Your Mind
697. The Grass Is Always
Greener...
"That all are equally happy or miserable, I suppose none is
sufficiently enthusiastical to maintain; because though we
cannot judge of the condition of others, yet every man has found
frequent vicissitudes in his own state, and must therefore be
convinced that life is susceptible of more or less felicity.
What then shall forbid us to endeavour the alteration of that
which is capable of being improved, and to grasp at augmentations
of good, when we know it is possible to be increased, and believe
that any particular change of situation will increase it?"
Johnson: Rambler #63 (October 23, 1750)
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698. The Grass Is Always
Greener...
"We often change a lighter for a greater evil, and wish ourselves
restored again to the state from which we thought it desirable to
be delivered. But this knowledge, though it is easily gained by
the trial, is not always attainable any other way; and that
error cannot justly be reproached, which reason could not
obviate, nor prudence avoid."
Johnson: Rambler #63 (October 23, 1750)
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1,175. Envy; The Grass Is Always
Greener; Humanity
"Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition:
all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and
whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another,
should remember that he knows not the real condition which he
desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious
passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already
too sparingly bestowed."
Johnson: Rambler #128 (June 8, 1751)
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1,537. Desire; The Grass Is Always
Greener...
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in
this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily
created; every man, in surveying the shops of London, sees
numberless instruments and conveniencies, of which, while he did
not know them, he never felt the need; and yet, when use has made
them familiar, wonders how life could be supported without them.
Thus it comes to pass, that our desires always increase with our
possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed,
impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Johnson: Adventurer #67 (June 26, 1753)
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1,838. The Grass Is Always Greener...;
Language; Waste
"To make the way to learning either less short or less smooth,
is certainly absurd; yet this is the apparent effect of the
prejudice which seems to prevail among us in favour of foreign
authors, and of the contempt of our native literature, which this
excursive curiosity must necessarily produce. Every man is more
speedily instructed by his own language than by any other; before
we search the rest of the world for teachers, let us try whether
we may not spare our trouble by finding them at home."
Johnson: Idler #91 (January 12, 1760)
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