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.
He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.
The unity of the bourgeoisie can be shaken only by the unity of the proletariat.
What is a loophole? If the law does not punish a definite action or does not tax a definite thing, this is not a loophole. It is simply the law.
We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.
Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something. Take for instance, money: money is a great thing to have, earn it, says Krishna; struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it. So with children, with wife, husband, relatives, fame, everything; you have no need to shun them, only don't get attached. There is only one attachment and that belongs to the Lord, and to none other.
There are no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses
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