Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice 37. Morality; Scruples; Virtue Boswell: I described to him an impudent fellow from Scotland, who affected to be a savage, and railed at all established systems. Johnson: "There is nothing surprizing in this, Sir. He wants to make himself conspicuous. He would tumble in a hogstye, as long as you looked at him and called to him to come out. But let him alone, never mind him, and he'll soon give it over." Boswell: I added that the same person maintained that there was no distinction between virtue and vice. Johnson: "Why, Sir, if the fellow does not think as he speaks, he is lying; and I see not what honour he can propose to himself from having the character of a liar. But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons." Boswell: Life Link 109. Courage; Virtue "Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other." Boswell: Life Link 357. Shame; Virtue "Where there is yet shame, there may in time be virtue." Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Link 393. Government; Virtue "Whatever profit [from colonies] is obtained must be gained by the violence of rapine, or dexterity of fraud. Government will not, perhaps, soon arrive at such purity and excellence, but that some connivance, at least, will be indulged to the triumphant robber and successful cheat. He that brings wealth home is seldom interrogated by what means it was obtained. This, however, is one of those modes of corruption with which mankind ought always to struggle, and which they may, in time, hope to overcome. There is reason to expect, that, as the world is more enlightened, policy and morality will, at last, be reconciled, and that nations will learn not to do what they will not suffer." Johnson: Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands Link 461. Virtue; Wisdom "...as it is always more easy to do evil than good, though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one may often make many miserable." Johnson: Rasselas [Princess Nekayah] Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas. Link 543. Moral Instruction; Virtue "...in moral discussions, it is to be remembered that many impediments obstruct our practice, which very easily give way to theory." Johnson: Rambler #14 (May 5, 1750) Link 544. Moral Instruction; Virtue; Writing "It is the condition of our present state to see more than we can attain; the exactest vigilance and caution can never maintain a single day of unmingled innocence... It is, however, necessary for the idea of perfection to be proposed, that we may have some object to which our endeavours are to be directed; and he that is most deficient in the duties of life makes some atonement for his faults if he warns others against his own failings, and hinders, by the salubrity of his admonitions, the contagion of his example." Johnson: Rambler #14 (May 5, 1750) Link 558. Marriage; Virtue "...Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and that he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness, that regard which only virtue and piety can claim." Johnson: Rambler #18 (May 19, 1750) Link 635. Fame; Virtue "The love of fame is to be regulated rather than extinguished; ... men should be taught not to be wholly careless about their memory, but to endeavour that they be remembered chiefly for their virtues, since no other reputation will be able to transmit any any pleasure beyond the grave." Johnson: Rambler #49 (September 4, 1750) Link 670. Corruption; Economy; Virtue "Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty. He that is extravagant will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption; it will almost always produce a passive compliance with the wickedness of others; and there are few who do not learn by degrees to practise those crimes which they cease to censure." Johnson: Rambler #57 (October 2, 1750) Link 704. Friendship; Virtue "That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both. We are often, by superficial accomplishments and accidental endearments, induced to love those whom we cannot esteem; we are sometimes, by great abilities, and incontestable evidences of virtue, compelled to esteem those whom we cannot love. But friendship, compounded of esteem and love, derives from one its tenderness, and its permanence from the other; and therefore, requires not only that its candidates should gain the judgment, but that they should attract the affections; that they should not only be firm in the day of distress, but gay in the hour of jollity; not only useful in exigences, but pleasing in familiar life; their presence should give cheerfulness as well as courage, and dispel alike the gloom of fear and of melancholy." Johnson: Rambler #64 (October 27, 1750) Link 708. Corruption; Salvation; Temptation; Virtue "Remember, my son, that human life is the journey of a day. We rise in the morning of youth, full of vigour and full of expectation; we set forward with spirit and hope, with gaiety and with diligence, and travel on a while in the straight road of piety towards the mansions of rest. In a short time we remit our fervour, and endeavour to find some mitigation of our duty, and some more easy means of obtaining the same end. We then relax our vigour, and resolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance, but rely upon our own constancy, and venture to approach what we resolve to never touch. We thus enter the bowers of ease, and repose in the shades of security. Here the heart softens and vigilance subsides; we are then willing to inquire whether another advance cannot be made, and whether we may not, at last, turn our eyes upon the garden of pleasure. We approach them with scruple and hesitation; we enter them, but enter timorous and trembling, and always hope to pass through them without losing the road of virtue, which we, for a while, keep in our sight, and to which we propose to return. But temptation succeeds temptation, and one compliance prepares us for another; we, in time, lose the happiness of innocence, and solace our disquiet with sensual gratifications. By degrees we let fall the remembrance of our original intention, and quit the only adequate object of rational desire. We entangle ourselves in business, immerge ourselves in luxury, and rove through the labyrinths of inconstancy, till the darkness of old age begins to invade us, and disease and anxiety obstruct our way. We then look back upon our lives with horror, with sorrow, with repentance; and wish, but too often vainly wish, that we had not forsaken the ways of virtue. Happy are they, my son, who shall learn from thy example not to despair, but shall remember, that though the day is past, and their strength is wasted, there yet remains one effort to be made; that reformation is never hopeless, nor sincere endeavours ever unassisted; that the wanderer may at length return after all his errours, and that he who implores strength and courage from above shall find danger and difficulty give way before him. Go now, my son, to thy repose, commit thyself to the care of Omnipotence, and when the morning calls again to toil, begin anew thy journey and thy life." Johnson: Rambler #65 (October 30, 1750) [words said by a fictional hermit] Link 737. Virtue "The danger of betraying our weakness to our servants, and the impossibility of concealing it from them, may be justly considered as one motive to a regular and irreproachable life." Johnson: Rambler #68 (November 10, 1750) Link 738. Shame; Virtue "To dread no eye, and to suspect no tongue, is the great prerogative of innocence; an exemption granted only to invariable virtue. But guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand in awe of those to whom nothing could give influence or weight, but their power of betraying." Johnson: Rambler #68 (November 10, 1750) Link 781. Choice; Virtue "It seems certain, that either a man must believe that virtue will make him happy, and resolve therefore to be virtuous, or think that he may be happy without virtue, and therefore cast off all care but for his present interest. It seems impossible that conviction should be on one side, and practice on the other; and that he who has seen the right way should voluntarily shut his eyes, that he may quit it with more tranquility. Yet all these absurdities are every hour to be found..." Johnson: Rambler #70 (November 17, 1750) Link 784. Judgement; Virtue "Since the purest virtue is consistent with some vice, and the virtue of the greatest number with almost an equal proportion of contrary qualities, let none too hastily conclude that all goodness is lost, though it may for a time be clouded and overwhelmed; for most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them, roll down any torrent of custom in which they happen to be caught, or bend to any importunity that bears hard against them." Johnson: Rambler #70 (November 17, 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 873. Value; Virtue; Wisdom "It is ... the business of wisdom and virtue to select, among numberless objects striving for our notice, such as may enable us to exalt our reason, extend our views, and secure our happiness. But this choice is to be made with very little regard to rareness or frequency; for nothing is valuable merely because it is either rare or common, but because it is adapted to some useful purpose, and enables us to supply some deficiency of our natures." Johnson: Rambler #78 (December 15, 1750) Link 926. Virtue "In all inquiries concerning the practice of voluntary and occasional virtues, it is safest for minds not oppressed with superstitious fears to determine against their own inclinations, and secure themselves from deficiency, by doing more than they believe strictly necessary. For, of this every man may be certain, that, if he were to exchange conditions with his dependent, he should expect more than, with the utmost exertion of ardour, he now will prevail upon himself to perform; and when reason has no settled rule, and our passions are striving to mislead us, it is surely the part of the wise man to err on the side of safety." Johnson: Rambler #81 (December 25, 1750) Link 972. Ego Defenses; Superficiality; Truth; Vanity; Virtue "Though truth and virtue are ... frequently defeated by pride, obstinacy, or folly, we are not allowed to desert them; for whoever can furnish arms which they hitherto have not employed, may enable them to gain some hearts which would have resisted any other method of attack. Every man of genius has some art of fixing the attention peculiar to himself, by which, honestly exerted, he may benefit mankind; for the arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration." Johnson: Rambler #87 (January 15, 1751) Link 1,031. Posturing; Virtue "Large offers and sturdy rejections are among the most common topicks of falsehood." Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,045. Success; Virtue "Success and virtue do not go necessarily together." Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets) Link 1,149. Corruption; Society; Virtue "No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous." Johnson: An Introduction To The Political State of Great Britain Link 1,309. Friendship; Virtue "It were happy if, in forming friendships, virtue could concur with pleasure; but the greatest part of human gratifications approach so nearly to vice that few who make the delight of others their rule of conduct can avoid disingenuous compliances; yet certainly he that suffers himself to be allured from virtue mistakes his own interest, since he gains succour by means, for which his friend, if ever he becomes wise, must scorn him, and for which at last he must scorn himself." Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751) Link 1,377. Virtue "Virtue presented singly to the imagination or the reason is so well recommended by its own graces, and so strongly supported by arguments, that a good man wonders how any can be bad." Johnson: Rambler #175 (November 19, 1751) Link 1,393. Temptation; Virtue "He that once turns aside to the allurements of unlawful pleasure can have no security that he shall ever regain the paths of virtue." Johnson: Rambler #178 (November 30, 1751) Link 1,428. Self-Confidence; Virtue Nothing can be great which is not right. Nothing which reason condemns can be suitable to the dignity of the human mind. To be driven by external motives from the path which our heart approves, to give way to any thing but conviction, to suffer the opinion of others to rule our choice or overpower our resolves, is to submit tamely to the lowest and most ignominious slavery, and to resign the right of directing our own lives. Johnson: Rambler #185 (December 24, 1751) Link 1,429. Faith; Perseverance; Pride; Virtue The utmost excellence at which humanity can arrive is a constant and determinate pursuit of virtue, without regard to present dangers or advantages; a continual reference of every action to the divine will; an habitual appeal to everlasting justice; and an unvaried elevation of the intellectual eye to the reward which perseverance only can obtain. But that pride which many, who presume to boast of generous sentiments, allow to regulate their measures has nothing nobler in view than the approbation of men, of beings whose superiority we are under no obligation to acknowledge, and who, when we have courted them with the utmost assiduity, can confer no valuable or permanent reward. Johnson: Rambler #185 (December 24, 1751) Link 1,461. Virtue "The grounds of scorn and esteem, the topics of praise and satire, are varied according to the several virtues or vices which the course of life has disposed men to admire or to abhor; but he who is solicitous for his own improvement must not be limited by local reputation, but select from every tribe of mortals their characteristical virtues, and constellate in himself the scattered graces which shine single in other men." Johnson: Rambler #201 (February 18, 1752) Link 1,508. Virtue "Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything." Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides Link 1,527. Jail; Virtue "Virtue is uncommon in all the classes of humanity; and I suppose it will scarcely be imagined more frequent in a prison than in other places. Yet..." Johnson: Adventurer #62 (June 9, 1753) Link 1,534. Virtue "No man can become venerable but by virtue, or contemptible but by wickedness." Johnson: Adventurer #67 (June 26, 1753) Link 1,657. Integrity; Individuality; Virtue "There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in a time of general venality, to lead a life of virtue and reason in the midst of sensualists, is a proof of a mind intent on nobler things than the praise or blame of men, of a soul fixed in the contemplation of the highest good, and superiour to the tyranny of custom and example." Johnson: Adventurer #131 (February 5, 1754) Link

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