An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.
Interpretation
Time passes quietly and subtly, often unnoticed, leading us into a state of innocence as it fades.
This quote reflects on the imperceptible passage of time and how it leads to a gradual decay of life and experiences. Johnson suggests that this decay, while often unnoticed, can be accompanied by a certain modest innocence, indicating that the loss of time does not always bring regret but may allow for a peaceful acceptance of life's transience.
In practice
In a reflective speech about the passage of life during a memorial service.
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.
Jesus took His flesh from the flesh of Mary
One receives as reward for much ennui, despondency, boredom -such as a solitude without friends, books, duties, passions must bring with it -those quarter-hours of profoundest contemplation within oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he will never get to drink the strongest refreshing draught from his own innermost fountain.
When I circled the moon and looked back at Earth, my outlook on life and my viewpoint of Earth changed... Earth is a spaceship, just like Apollo - and just like Apollo, the crew must learn to live and work together. We must learn to manage the resources of this world with new imagination.
True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.
A man who wants to mutilate himself is certainly damned, isn't he?
I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.
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