Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
Interpretation
Attacks on one's beliefs can undermine confidence and create discomfort and anger towards those who question them.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the emotional impact that criticism of oneβs beliefs can have on an individual. It points out that when someone challenges our deeply held convictions, it can lead to a sense of unease and fragility in our self-assurance, provoking feelings of anger towards the critic. This emphasizes the sensitive nature of personal beliefs and the inherent vulnerability that comes with holding them dearly.
In practice
During a debate about religion, one could use this quote to explain why personal beliefs can be sensitive subjects.
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.
Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a man.
Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.
A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe, a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.
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