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All In Your Mind
231. Insecurity
"That distrust which intrudes so often on your mind is a mode of
melancholy, which, if it be the business of a wise man to be
happy, it is foolish to indulge; and if it be a duty to preserve
our faculties entire for their proper use, it is criminal.
Suspicion is very often an useless pain."
Johnson: Letter to Boswell
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887. Estrangement; Friendship;
Insecurity
"Friendship is often destroyed by opposition of interest, not
only by the ponderous and visible interest which the desire of
wealth and greatness forms and maintains, but by a thousand
secret and slight competitions, scarcely known to the mind upon
which they operate. There is scarcely any man without some
favourite trifle which he values above greater attainments, some
desire of petty praise which he cannot patiently suffer to be
frustrated. This minute ambition is sometimes crossed before it
is known, and sometimes defeated by wanton petulance; but such
attacks are seldom made without the loss of friendship; for,
whoever has once found the vulnerable part will always be feared,
and the resentment will burn on in secret, of which shame hinders
the discovery."
Johnson: Idler #23 (September 23, 1758)
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