Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
Interpretation
Prejudice is irrational and cannot be changed through logical discussion.
Samuel Johnson's quote emphasizes the irrational nature of prejudice, suggesting that since it is not based on reason or evidence, simply engaging in argument or logical discourse will not be effective in changing a prejudiced mindset. This points to the deeper emotional and social roots of prejudice, highlighting the need for a more profound transformation in beliefs rather than just intellectual debate.
In practice
During a discussion on social justice, one might quote this to emphasize the challenges of changing deeply held biases.
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.
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
There have been as many varieties of socialists as there are wild birds that fly in the woods and sometimes go up and on through the clouds.
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.
Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints.
I experienced an ecstasy of unity. I not only saw the connectedness, I felt it and experienced it sentiently. The restraints and boundaries of flesh and bone fell away.
Uncleanness is so much the attribute of officials that one could almost regard them as enormous parasites...In the same way the fathers in Kafka's strange families batten on their sons, lying on top of them like giant parasites. They not only prey upon their strength, but gnaw away at the sons' right to exist. The fathers punish, but they are at the same time the accusers. The sin of which they accuse their sons seems to be a kind of original sin.
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