Other related topics at:
All In Your Mind
729. Appearances; Madness of Crowds;
Diversion
"To every place of entertainment we go with expectation and
desire of being pleased; we meet others who are brought by the
same motives; no one will be the first to own the
disappointment; one face reflects the smile of another, till
each believes the rest delighted, and endeavours to catch and
transmit the circulating rapture. In time, all are deceived by
the cheat to which all contribute. The fiction of happiness is
propagated by every tongue, and confirmed by every look, till at
last all profess the joy which they do not feel, consent to yield
to the general delusion, and, when the voluntary dream is at an
end, lament that bliss is of so short a duration."
Johnson: Idler #18 (August 12, 1758)
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1,643. Diversion; Madness of
Crowds
"As people who have the same inclination generally flock
together, every trifler is kept in countenance by the sight of
others as unprofitably active as himself; by kindling the heat of
competition, he in time thinks himself important, and by having
his mnind intensely engaged, he is secured from weariness of
himself."
Johnson: Adventurer #128 (January 26, 1754)
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