Other related topics at:
Virtue and Vice
661. Maturity; Old Age
"...that though they may refuse to grow
wise, they must
inevitably grow old; ...that the proper solaces of age are not
music and compliments, but wisdom and devotion; that those who
are so unwilling to quit the world will soon be driven from it;
and that it is therefore in their interest to retire while there
yet remain a few hours of nobler employments."
Johnson: Rambler #55 (September 25, 1750); written from the
fictional voice of "Parthenia," a daughter whose mother views her
as a rival.
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920. Maturity; Youth
"They that enter into the world are too often treated with
unreasonable rigour by those that were once as ignorant and heady
as themselves; and distinction is not always made between the
faults which require speedy and violent eradication, and those
that will gradually drop away in the progression of life.
Vicious solicitations of appetite, if not checked, will grow more
importunate; and mean arts of profit or ambition will gather
strength in the mind, if they are not early suppressed. But
mistaken notions of superiority, desires of useless show, pride
of little accomplishments, and all the train of vanity, will be
brushed away by the wing of Time."
Johnson: Idler #25 (October 7, 1758)
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1,451. Change; Maturity
"Whoever reviews the state of his own mind from the dawn of
manhood to its decline, and considers what he pursued or dreaded,
slighted or esteemed, at different periods of his age, will have
no reason to imagine such changes of sentiment peculiar to any
station or character. Every man, however careless and
inattentive, has conviction forced upon him: the lectures of time
obtrude themselves upon the most unwilling or dissipated auditor;
and, by comparing our past with our present thoughts, we perceive
that we have changed our minds, though perhaps we cannot discover
when the alteration happened, or by what cause it was
produced."
Johnson: Rambler #196 (February 1, 1752)
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