Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice 38. Humility; Simplicity I mentioned that I was afraid I put into my journal too many little incidents. Johnson: "There is nothing, Sir, too little for a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible." Boswell: Life Link 923. Appropriateness; Simplicity "That for which there is no occasion, had always better be dispensed with." Anecdote from Fanny Burney, in C.B. Tinker, Dr. Johnson and Fanny Burney (1912) Link 924. Humility; Religion; Simplicity "Of the divine Author of our religion it is impossible to peruse the evangelical histories, without observing how little he favoured the vanity of inquisitiveness; how much more rarely he condescended to satisfy curiosity than to relieve distress; and how much he desired that his followers should rather excel in goodness than in knowledge. His precepts tend immediately to the rectification of the moral principles, and the direction of daily conduct, without ostentation, without art, at once irrefragable and plain; such as well meaning simplicity may readily conceive, and of which we cannot mistake the meaning, but when we are afraid to find it." Johnson: Rambler #81 (December 25, 1750) Link 1,679. Desires; Simplicity "What we really need we may readily obtain; so readily, that far the greater part of mankind has, in the wantonness of abundance, confounded natural with artificial desires, and invented necessities for the sake of employment, because the mind is impatient of inaction, and life is sustained with so little labour, that the tediousness of idle time cannot otherwise be supported." Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758) Link 1,681. Desires; Satisfaction; Simplicity "That curiosity which always succeeds ease and plenty, was undoubtedly given us as a proof of capacity which our present state is not able to fill, as a preparative for some better mode of existence, which shall furnish employment for the whole soul, and where pleasure shall be adequate to our powers of fruition." Johnson: Idler #37 (December 30, 1758) Link