The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
Interpretation
The greatness of a society is reflected in its creative contributors.
Samuel Johnson's quote emphasizes that the true honor and distinction of a society come from its authors, artists, and thinkers. It suggests that the intellectual and artistic achievements of individuals shape the culture and legacy of a people, indicating the importance of creative expression in defining collective identity.
In practice
An author can inspire a generation, illustrating the power of literature in shaping society.
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.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
I've been bothered about time generally and our tripartite division of time into past, present, and future. I think I know what the past is, and I think I know what future is, but I'm really not comfortable with the notion of present.
We are all familiar with the argument: Make war dreadful enough, and there will be no war. And we none of us believe it.
It is a well-known fact that we see the faults in other's works more readily than we do in our own.
When the buying stops, the killing can too.
I was a little drunk. Not drunk in any positive sense but just enough to be careless.
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