Quotes on Implementation
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page
Home | Topical Guide | Search the Site

 
 

Other related topics at:
Project Steps

445. Implementation
"Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of
caution regarding quotes from Rasselas.
Link


928. Hypocrisy; Implementation; Resolutions
"It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit: but the truth is, that there is very little hypocrisy in the world; we do not so often endeavour or wish to impose on others as on ourselves; we resolve to do right, we hope to keep our resolutions, we declare them to confirm our own hope, and fix our own inconstancy by calling witnesses of our actions; but at last habit prevails, and those whom we invited to our triumph laugh at our defeat."
Johnson: Idler #27 (October 21, 1758)
Link


970. Implementation; Moral Instruction; Reading; Superficiality
"We see that volumes may be perused, and perused with attention, to little effect; and that maxims of prudence, or principles of virtue, may be treasured in the memory without influencing the conduct. Of the numbers that pass their lives among books, very few read to be made wiser or better, apply any general reproof of vice to themselves, or try their own manners by axioms of justice. They purpose either to consume those hours for which they can find no other amusement, to gain or preserve that respect which learning has always obtained; or to gratify their curiosity with knowledge which, like treasure buried and forgotten, is of no use to others or themselves."
Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751)
Link


971. Implementation; Moral Instruction; Reading; Superficiality
"A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists, without any practical regard to morality or religion; he may be learning not to live, but to reason; he may regard only the elegance of style, justness of argument, and accuracy of method; and may enable himself to criticise with judgment, and dispute with subtilty, and while the chief use of his volumes is unthought of, his mind is unaffected, and his life is unreformed."
Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 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


1,501. Implementation; Speculation; Vision
"It is well known, that many things appear plausible in speculation, which can never be reduced to practice; and that of the numberless projects that have flattered mankind with theoretical speciousness, few have served any other purpose than to show the ingenuity of their contrivers."
Johnson: Adventurer #45 (March 27, 1753)
Link


1,638. Implementation; Solitude
"Many, indeed, who enjoy retreat only in imagination, content themselves with believing, that another year will transport them to rural tranquility, and die while they talk of doing what, if they had lived longer, they would never have done."
Johnson: Adventurer #126 (January 19, 1754)
Link


The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page
Back to Top
Home | Topical Guide | Search the SiteThis image is only to register visitors
who come through cached search engine pages.