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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)
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