All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that actions or judgments that do not contribute to positive outcomes or deter negative ones are pointless.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson reflects on the nature of severity, arguing that it should serve a purpose. If severity does not lead to an increase in goodness or the prevention of evil, it is considered idle or meaningless. This implies that both actions and attitudes should aim toward fostering positive change or mitigating harm, promoting a more purposeful approach to how we engage with the world and its challenges.
In practice
This quote can be powerful in discussions about ethical leadership.
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.
The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil.
There is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling, except in the infinite; for the soul, except in the divine.
It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.
If you blame others for something that happens in your life, then you must wait until they change in order to get better.
The only theism worthy of our respect believes in God not because of the way the world is made but in spite of that. The only theism that is no less profound than the Buddha's atheism is that represented in the Bible by Job and Jeremiah.
They take the circuits out of people’s brains that make it possible for them to think for themselves. Their world is like the one that George Orwell depicted in his novel. I’m sure you realize that there are plenty of people who are looking for exactly that kind of brain death. It makes life a lot easier. You don’t have to think about difficult things, just shut up and do what your superiors tell you to do.
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