Other related topics at:
Death and Mourning
62. Mortality; Prayer; Resolutions
"I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving: having, from
the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming plans
of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing,
therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short.
O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my
resolutions, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."
Johnson: Prayers
Link
234. After-life; Death; Mortality;
Religion
I mentioned to Dr. Johnson, that David Hume's
persisting in his
infidelity, when he was dying, shocked me much. Johnson:
"Why should it shock you, Sir? Hume owned he had never read the
New Testament with attention. Here then was a man, who had been
at no pains to inquire into the truth of religion, and had
continually turned his mind the other way. It was not to be
expected that the prospect of death would alter his way of
thinking, unless God should send an angel to set him right." I
said, I had no reason to believe that the thought of annihilation
gave Hume no pain. Johnson: "It was not so, Sir. He had
a vanity in being thought easy. It is more probable that he
should assume an appearance of ease, than that so very probable a
thing should be, as a man not afraid of going (as, in spite of
his delusive theory, he cannot be sure but he may go,) into an
unknown state, and not being uneasy at leaving all he knew. And
you are to consider, that upon his own principle of annihilation
he had no motive to speak the truth."
Boswell: Life
Link
235. Death; Mortality
I ventured to tell him, that I had been, for moments in my life,
not afraid of death; therefore I could suppose another man in
that state of mind for a considerable space of time. He said,
"he never had a moment in which death was not terrible to him."
He added, that it had been observed, that scarce any man dies in
publick, but with apparent resolution; from that desire of
praise which never quits us. I said, Dr. Dodd seemed to be
willing to die, and full of hopes of happiness. "Sir, (said he,)
Dr. Dodd would have given both his hands and both his legs to
have lived. The better a man is, the more afraid he is of death,
having a clearer view of infinite purity."
Boswell: Life
Link
285. Mortality; Religion
Seward: "One should think that sickness, and the view of
death, would make more men religious." Johnson: "Sir,
they do not know how to go about it: they have not the first
notion. A man who has never had religion before, no more grows
religious when he is sick, than a man who has never learnt
figures can count when he has need of calculation."
Boswell: Life
Link
289. After-life; Mortality
"Let us, my dear, pray for one another, and consider our
sufferings as notices mercifully given us to prepare ourselves
for another state.
"I live now in a melancholy way. My old friend Mr. Levet is
dead, who lived with me in the house, and was useful and
companionable; Mrs. Desmoulins is gone away; and Mrs. Williams
is so much decayed , that she can add little to another's
gratifications. The world passes away, and we are passing with
it; but there is, doubtless, another world, which will endure
for ever. Let us fit ourselves for it."
Johnson: Letter to Lucy Porter
Link
292. Mortality
"O! my friend, the approach of death is very dreadful. I am
afraid to think on that which I know I cannot avoid. It is vain
to look round and round for that help which cannot be had. Yet
we hope and hope, and fancy that he who has lived to-day may live
to-morrow. But let us learn to derive our hope only from
God."
Johnson: Letter to John Taylor
Link
293. Mortality; Salvation
Johnson, talking of the fear of death, said, "Some people are not
afraid, because they look upon salvation as the effect of an
absolute decree, and think they feel in themselves the marks of
sanctification. Others, and those the most rational in my
opinion, look upon salvation as conditional; and as they never
can be sure they have complied with the conditions, they are
afraid."
Boswell: Life
Link
315. Mortality
"That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered
it sooner."
Johnson: Letter to Sir Joshua Reynolds
Link
318. Mortality
"...this world must soon pass away. Let us think seriously on
our duty. I send my kindest respects to dear Mrs. Careless: let
me have the prayers of both. We have all lived long, and must
soon part. God have mercy on us, for the sake of our Lord Jesus
Christ."
Johnson: Letter to Edmund Hector
Link
320. After-life; Mortality
"You know I never thought confidence with respect to futurity any
part of the character of a brave, a wise, or a good man. Bravery
has no place where it can avail nothing, Wisdom impresses
strongly the consciousness of those faults, of which it is itself
perhaps an aggravation; and Goodness always wishing to be
better, and imputing every deficience to criminal negligence, and
every fault to voluntary corruption, never dares to suppose the
conditions of forgiveness fulfilled, not what is wanting in the
virtue supplied by Penitence.
This is the state of the best; but what must be the condition of
him whose heart will not suffer him to rank himself among the
best, or among the good? Such must be his dread of the
approaching trial, as will leave him little attention to the
opinion of those whom he is leaving forever; and the serenity
that is not felt, it can be of no virtue to feign."
Johnson: Letter to Hester Thrale [Piozzi]
Link
383. Death; Mortality
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a
fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
Boswell: Life
Link
431. Old Age; Mortality;
Sensitivity
...in the decline of life shame and grief are of short duration;
whether it be that we bear easily what we have borne long; or
that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard
others; or, that we look with slight regard upon afflictions to
which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.
Johnson: Rasselas [Narrator]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
499. After-life; Contemplation;
Mortality; Pleasure
"Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous by
endearing us to a state which we know to be transient and
probatory, and withdrawing our thoughts from that of which every
hour brings us nearer to the beginning, and of which no length of
time will bring us to the end. Mortification is not virtuous in
itself, nor has any other use but that it disengages us from
allurements of sense. In the state of future perfection, to
which we all aspire, there will be pleasure without danger, and
security without restraint."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
502. After-Life; Mortality;
Salvation
"To me ... the choice of life is become less important; I hope
hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."
Johnson: Rasselas
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
548. Mortality
"...We represent to ourselves the pleasure of some future
possession, and suffer our thoughts to dwell attentively upon it,
till it has wholly engrossed the imagination, and permits us not
to conceive any happiness but its attainment, or any misery but
its loss; every other satisfaction which the bounty of
providence has scattered over life is neglected as
inconsiderable, in consideration of the great object which we
have placed before us, and is thrown from us as incumbering our
activity, or trampled under foot as standing in our way.
"Every man has experienced how much of this ardour has been
remitted, when a sharp or tedious sickness has set death before
his eyes. The extensive influence of greatness, the glitter of
wealth, the praises of admirers, and the attendance of
supplicants have appeared vain and empty things, when the last
hour seemed to be approaching; and the same appearance they
would always have, if the same thought was always predominant.
We should then find the absurdity of stretching out our arms
incessantly to grasp that which we cannot keep, and wearing out
our lives in endeavours to add new turrets to the fabric of
ambition, when the foundation itself is shaking, and the ground
on which it stands is mouldering away."
Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750)
Link
551. Mortality
"He that considers how soon he must close his life will find
nothing of so much importance as to close it well; and will,
therefore, look with indifference upon whatever is useless to
that purpose."
Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750)
Link
555. Mortality
"The uncertainty of our duration ought at once to set bounds to
our designs, and add incitements to our industry; and when we
find ourselves inclined either to immensity in our schemes, or
sluggishness in our endeavours, we may either check or animate
ourselves, by recollecting, with the father of physic, that
art is long, and life is short."
Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750)
Link
657. Disease; Mortality
"He that ... wishes to see life stripped of those ornaments which
make it glitter on stage, and exposed in its natural meanness,
impotence, and nakedness, may find all the delusion laid open in
the chamber of disease: he will there find vanity divested of
her robes, power deprived of her sceptre, and hypocrisy without
her mask."
Johnson: Rambler #54 (September 22, 1750)
Link
794. Mortality; Vanity; Virtue
"Among the many improvements made by the last centuries in human
knowledge, may be numbered the exact calculations of the value of
life; but whatever may be their use in traffic, they seem very
little to have advanced morality. They have hitherto rather been
applied to the acquisition of money than of wisdom; the computer
refers none of his calculations to his own tenure, but persists,
in contempt of probability, to foretell old age to himself, and
believes that he is marked out to reach the utmost verge of human
existence, and see thousands and ten thousands fall into the
grave."
Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750)
Link
795. Mortality
"We act as if life were without end, though we see and confess
its uncertainty and shortness."
Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750)
Link
796. Mortality; Time
"As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may
be certain that he has no time to waste. The duties of life are
commensurate to its duration, and every day brings its task,
which, if neglected, is doubled on the morrow. But he that has
already trifled away those months and years, in which he should
have laboured, must remember that he has now only a part of that
which the whole is little; and that, since the few moments
remaining are to be considered as the last days of Heaven, not
one is to be lost."
Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750)
Link
876. Futurity; Mortality
"It is, indeed, apparent, from the constitution of the world,
that there must be a time for other thoughts; and a perpetual
meditation upon the last hour, however it may become the solitude
of a monastery, is inconsistent with many duties of common life.
But surely the remembrance of death ought to predominate in our
minds, as an habitual and settled principle, always operating,
though not always perceived; and our attention should seldom
wander so far from our own condition as not to be recalled and
fixed by the sight of an event which must soon, we know not how
soon, happen likewise to ourselves, and of which, though we
cannot appoint the time, we may secure the consequence."
Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750)
Link
877. Futurity; Mortality;
Narrowness
"Every instance of death may justly awaken our fears and quicken
our vigilance; but its frequency so much weakens its effect that
we are seldom alarmed unless some close connexion is broken,
some scheme frustrated, or some hope defeated. Many, therefore,
seem to pass on from youth to decrepitude without any reflection
on the end of life, because they are wholly involved within
themselves, and look on others only as inhabitants of the common
earth, without any expectation of receiving good, or intention of
bestowing it."
Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750)
Link
942. Exercise; Mortality
"Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are
decreed; but while the soul and body continue united, it can
make the association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they
shall be disjoined by an easy separation."
Johnson: Rambler #85 (January 8, 1751)
Link
1,165. Death; Fear; Mortality
"To be always afraid of losing life is, indeed, scarcely to enjoy
a life that can deserve the care of preservation. He that once
indulges idle fears will never be at rest. Our present state
admits only of a kind of negative security; we must conclude
ourselves safe when we see no danger, or none inadequate to our
powers of opposition. Death, indeed, continually hovers about
us, but hovers commonly unseen, unless we sharpen our sight by
useless curiosity."
Johnson: Rambler #126 (June 1, 1751)
Link
1,331. Life; Mortality;
Satisfaction
"That life is short we are all convinced, and yet suffer not that
conviction to repress our projects or limit our expectations;
that life is miserable we all feel, and yet we believe that the
time is near when we shall feel it no longer. But to hope
happiness and immortality is equally vain. Our state may indeed
be more or less imbittered as our duration may be more or
less contracted; yet the utmost felicity which we can ever
attain will be little better than alleviation of misery, and we
shall always feel more pain from our wants than pleasure from our
enjoyments."
Johnson: Rambler #165 (October 15, 1751)
Link
1,474. Happiness; Life;
Mortality
"Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from the
time to come. In youth we have nothing to entertain us, and in
age we derive little from retrospect but hopeless sorrow. Yet
the future likewise has its limits, which the imagination dreads
to approach, but which we see to be not far distant. The loss of
our friends and companions impresses hourly upon the necessity of
our own departure; we know that the schemes of man are quickly at
an end, that we soon must lie down in the grave with the
forgotten multitudes of former ages, and yield our place to
others, who, like us, shall be driven a while by hope and fear
about the surface of the earth, and then like us be lost in the
shades of death. Beyond this termination of our material
existence, we are therefore obliged to extend our hopes..."
Johnson: Rambler #203 (February 25, 1752)
Link
1,540. Delusion; Mortality
Tully has long ago observed, that no man, however weakened by
long life, is so conscious of his own decrepitude, as not to
imagine that he may yet hold his station in the world for another
year.
Of the truth of this remark every day furnishes new
confirmation: there is no time of life, in which men for the most
part seem less to expect the stroke of death, than when every
other eye sees it impending; or are more busy in providing for
another year, than when it is plain to all but themselves, that
at another year they cannot arrive.
Johnson: Adventurer #69 (July 3, 1753)
Link
1,693. Mortality; Mourning
"Nothing is more evident than that the decays of age must
terminate in death; yet there is no man, says Tully, who does not
believe that he may yet live another year; and there is none who
does not, upon the same principle, hope for another year for his
parent or his friend: but the fallacy will be in time detected;
the last year, the last day must come. It has come, and is
passed. The life which made my own life pleasant is at an end,
and the gates of death are shut upon my prospects."
Johnson: Idler #41 (January 27, 1759)
Link
1,697. Mortality; Mourning
"Such is the course of nature, that whoever lives long must
outlive those whom he loves and honours. Such is the condition
of our present existence, that life must one time lose its
associations, and every inhabitant of the earth must walk
downward to the grave alone and unregarded, without any partner
of his joy or grief, without any interested witness of his
misfortunes or success."
Johnson: Idler #41 (January 27, 1759)
Link
1,855. Hot Air; Mortality
On Sunday, April 12, I found him at home before dinner; Dr.
Dodd's poem entitled Thoughts in Prison was lying upon his
table. This appearing to me an extraordinary effort by a man who
was in Newgate for a capital crime, I was desirous to hear
Johnson's opinion of it: to my surpize, he told me he had not
read a line of it. I took up the book and read a passage to him.
JOHNSON. "Pretty well, if you are previously disposed to like
them." I read another passage, with which he was better pleased.
He then took the book into his own hands, and having looked at
the prayer at the end of it, he said, "What evidence is
there that this was composed the night before he suffered?
I do not believe it." He then read aloud where he prays
for the King, &c. and observed, "Sir, do you think that a man the
night before he is to be hanged cares for the succession of a
royal family?— Though, he may have composed this
prayer, then. A man who has been canting all his life, may cant
to the last.— And yet a man who has been refused a pardon
after so much petitioning, would hardly be praying thus fervently
for the King."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
Link
1,863. Birthdays; Mortality;
Regret
"Boswel, with some of his troublesome kindness, has informed this
family, and reminded me that the eighteenth of September is my
birthday. The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me
with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity
to escape. I can now look back upon threescore and four years, in
which little has been done, and little has been enjoyed, a life
diversified by misery, spent part in the sluggishness of penury,
and part under the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent, or
importunate distress. But perhaps I am better than I should have
been, if I had been less afflicted. With this I will try to be
content."
Johnson: Letter to Hester Thrale (September 21, 1773)
Link
1,867. Death; Mortality; Old Age
"Every funeral may justly be considered as a summons to prepare
for that state, into which it shews us that we must sometime
enter; and the summons is more loud and piercing, as the even of
which it warns us is at less distance. To neglect at any time
preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege, but to
omit it in old age, is to sleep at an attack."
Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750)
Link
