Other related topics at: Money 1,045. Success; Virtue "Success and virtue do not go necessarily together." Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,110. Complacency; Diligence; Praise; Success "It frequently happens that applause abates diligence. Whosoever finds himself to have performed more than was demanded will be contented to spare the labour of unnecessary performances, and sit down to enjoy at ease his superfluities of honour. He whom success has made confident of his abilities quickly claims the privilege of negligence, and looks contemptuously on the gradual advances of a rival, whom he imagines himself able to leave behind whenever he shall again summon his force to the contest. But long intervals of pleasure dissipate attention and weaken constancy; nor is it easy for him that has sunk from diligence into sloth to rouse out of his lethargy, to recollect his notions, rekindle his curiosity, and engage with his former ardour in the toils of his study." Johnson: Rambler #111 (April 9, 1751) Link 1,243. Success "Though the discoveries or acquisitions of man are not always adequate to the expectations of his pride, they are at least sufficient to animate his industry." Johnson: Rambler #150 (August 24, 1751) Link 1,247. Perseverance; Success "He whose courage has made way against the turbulence of opposition, and whose vigour has broken through the snares of distress, has many advantages over those that have slept in the shades of indolence, and whose retrospect of time can entertain them with nothing but day rising upon day, and year gliding after year." Johnson: Rambler #150 (August 24, 1751) Link 1,325. Influence; Success "As the greater part of humankind speak and act wholly by imitation, most of those who aspire to honour and applause propose to themselves some example which serves as the model of their conduct and the limit of their hopes. Almost every man, if closely examined, will be found to have enlisted himself under some leader whom he expects to conduct him to renown; to have some hero or other, living or dead, in his view, whose character he endeavours to assume, and whose performances he labours to equal. When the original is well chosen and judiciously copied, the imitator often arrives at excellence which he could never have attained without direction; for few are formed with abilities to discover new possibilities of excellence, and to distinguish themselves by means never tried before." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,326. Fame; Success "No man rises to such a height as to become conspicuous, but he is on one side censured by undiscerning malice, which reproaches him for his best actions, and slanders his apparent and incontestable excellences; and idolized on the other by ignorant admiration, which exalts his faults and follies into virtues." Johnson: Rambler #164 (October 12, 1751) Link 1,367. Pride; Success "It is certain that success naturally confirms in us a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly produced by imaginary merit." Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751) Link 1,411. Success "Success is not to be expected." Johnson: Rambler #182 (December 14, 1751) Link 1,446. Success "Human greatness is short and transitory, as the odour of incense in the fire." Johnson: Rambler #190 (January 11, 1752) Link 1,496. Success "To have gained one victory, is an inducement to hazard a second engagement." Johnson: Adventurer #34 (March 3, 1753), from a fictional correspondent named Misargyrus Link 1,553. Ambition; Success "From torpid despondency, can come no advantage; it is the frost of the soul, which binds up all its powers, and congeals life in perpetual sterility. He that has no hopes of success, will make no attempts; and where nothing is attempted, nothing can be done." Johnson: Adventurer #81 (August 14, 1753) Link 1,597. Diligence; Success "It does not, indeed, always happen, that diligence is fortunate; the wisest schemes are broken by unexpected accidents; the most constant perseverance sometimes toils through life without a recompense; but labour, though unsuccessful, is more eligible than idleness." Johnson: Adventurer #111 (November 27, 1753) Link 1,647. Potential; Success "Man can only form a just estimate of his own actions, by making his power the test of his performance, by comparing what he does with what he can do. Whoever steadily perseveres in the exertion of all his faculties, does what is great with respect to himself; and what will not be despised by Him, who has given to all created beings their different abilities: he faithfully performs the task of life, within whatever limits his labours may be confined, or how soon soever they may be forgotten." Johnson: Adventurer #128 (January 26, 1754) Link 1,716. Success "To do nothing every man is ashamed; and to do much, almost every man is unwilling or afraid." Johnson: Idler #48 (March 17, 1759) Link 1,826. Humanity; Success "A little more than nothing is as much as can be expected from a being who, with respect to the multitudes about him, is himself little more than nothing. Every man is obliged by the Supreme Master of the universe to improve all the opportunities of good which are afforded him, and to keep in continual activity such abilities as are bestowed upon him. But he has no reason to repine, though his abilities are small and his opportunities are few. He that has improved the virtue, or advanced the happiness, of one fellow-creature; he that has ascertained a single moral proposition, or added one useful experiment to natural knowledge, may be contented with his own performance; and, with respect to mortals like himself, may demand, like Augustus, to be dismissed at his departure with applause." Johnson: Idler #88 (December 22, 1759) Link 1,866. Failure; Fame; Humanity; Success; Writing Success and miscarriage have the same effect in all conditions. The prosperous are feared, hated, and flattered; and the unfortunate avoided, pitied, and despised. No sooner is a book published than the writer may judge of the opinion of the world. If his acquaintance press around him in publick places, or salute from the other side of the street; if invitations to dinner come thick upon him, and those with whom he dines keep him to supper; if the ladies turn to him when his coat is plain, and the footmen serve him with attention and alacrity; he may be sure that his work has been praised by some leader of literary fashions. Of declining reputation the symptoms are not less easily observed. If the author enters a coffee-house, he has a box to himself; if he calls at a bookseller's, the boy turns his back; and, what is the most fatal of all prognosticks, authors will visit him in a morning, and talk to him hour after hour of the malevolence of criticks, the neglect of merit, the bad taste of the age, and the candour of posterity. Johnson: Idler #102 (March 29, 1760) Link