If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that without virtue, even the greatest advancements or skills could lead to chaos and insecurity.
Samuel Johnson's quote explores the relationship between virtue and security in society. He suggests that if all individuals were virtuous, he would happily teach them to fly, representing the human capacity for greatness and innovation. However, he raises a critical concern: if malevolent individuals could access such power freely, it would undermine the safety of the virtuous. This highlights the importance of moral character in the exercise of power and innovation, suggesting that without a foundation of virtue, advances can lead to greater risks than benefits.
In practice
During a speech about ethical leadership, one could reference this quote to emphasize the need for virtue in positions of power.
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.
During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.
Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.
None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.
All I wanted and all Neal wanted and all anybody wanted was some kind of penetration into the heart of things where, like in a womb, we could curl up and sleep the ecstatic sleep that Burroughs was experiencing with a good big mainline shot of M. and advertising executives in NY were experiencing with twelve Scotch & Sodas in Stouffers before they made the drunkard's train to Westchester---but without hangovers.
The Gospel itself is angular. It always has been. It always conflicts. It always challenges every generation. It challenges different generations in different ways.
My rule is that if I interview someone, they should never read what I have to say about them and regret having given me the interview.
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