Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained
Interpretation
This quote highlights how our imagination can amplify our thoughts, especially when we focus on them for too long.
Samuel Johnson's quote suggests that prolonged attention to a particular thought or idea can lead to an exaggerated perception of its importance or impact. Even a well-developed judgment may fall short when it comes to managing the tendencies of the imagination, which can distort reality based on fixation.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming negative thoughts, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of managing one's focus.
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.
One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.
The tongue is a small member, but it does big things. A religious who does not keep silence will never attain holiness; that is, she will never become a saint. Let her not delude herself - unless it is the Spirit of God who is speaking through her, for then she must not keep silent. But, in order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy silence but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God.
What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age.
Self-esteem starts out as a personal blessing, but it becomes nothing less than an evolutionary force.
For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
Much did I rage when young, Being by the world oppressed, But now with flattering tongue It speeds the parting guest.
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