He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
Interpretation
To experience joy and success, one must be willing to leave their comfort zone.
This quote emphasizes the necessity of stepping out of one's comfort zone to experience the positive aspects of life. Samuel Johnson suggests that in order to enjoy the brighter, more rewarding moments (the sunshine), an individual must be willing to leave behind the comforting yet limiting situations (the coolness of the shade) they are accustomed to. It speaks to the idea that personal growth and happiness often require sacrifice and the courage to embrace change.
In practice
During a graduation speech, a speaker might use this quote to encourage students to embrace new opportunities.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
Most people are perpetually locked in the present. Their decisions are overly influenced by the most immediate event; they easily become emotional and ascribe greater significance to a problem than it should have in reality.
There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I shall ask no more than that you agree with Dean Inge that even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.
Although I usually think I know what I'm going to be writing about, what I'm going to say, most of the time it doesn't happen that way at all. At some point I get misled down a garden path, I get surprised by an idea that I hadn't anticipated getting, which is a little bit like being in a laboratory.
But Chinese civilization has the overpowering beauty of the wholly other, and only the wholly other can inspire the deepest love and the profoundest desire to learn.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.