Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle; for the calamities of life, like the necessities of Nature, are calls to labor and diligence.
Interpretation
Patience and submission should not be confused with weakness; instead, they can be a call to action and perseverance in the face of life's challenges.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between two contrasting states: patience and submission, which can be seen as virtues, and cowardice and indolence, which are negative traits. He advocates for an active response to life's difficulties as genuine struggles, suggesting that challenges are avenues for growth and hard work rather than excuses for passivity. The essence lies in recognizing that while we may face struggles, they should not lead us to despair but rather motivate us to engage with diligence and effort.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote in a classroom to inspire students to work hard despite challenges.
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.
There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.
Closing the confidence gap means being honest about your abilities, not constantly undervaluing them.
The strongest of us are those that are spiritually strong, and a spiritual warrior is one of vulnerability.
My business skills have come from being guided by my inner self - my intuition.
We have finished the job. What shall we do with the tools?
When you label so much of what happens to you as 'bad,' it reinforces the feeling that you are a powerless pawn at the mercy of outside forces over which you have no control. And - this is key - labeling something a bad thing almost guarantees that you'll experience it as such.
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