When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.
Interpretation
Seeking celebrity can make happiness dependent on external validation, leaving one vulnerable to others' opinions.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson reflects on the dangers of tying one's happiness to fame or celebrity. He argues that once a person feels that being well-known is essential for their joy, they become susceptible to the whims and malice of others. Instead of finding contentment within themselves, they allow external factors, such as the indifference or hostility of their peers, to influence their satisfaction and well-being.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-worth, to emphasize the importance of inner happiness over public approval.
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.
I'm trying to look at my blessings and how amazingly well against all odds things have turned out for me.
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it's becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal.
One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
The master never seemed to have his fill of gazing at his firstborn child. "What do you want him to be when he grows up?" someone asked. "Outrageously happy," said the master.
What is the good of life if its chief element, and that which must always be its chief element, is odious? No, the only true economy is to arrange so that your daily labor shall be itself a joy.
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