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.
Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
To me all men are equal: there are jackasses everywhere, and I have the same contempt for them all.
Curses of vanished elders echoed down on me; too pretty, too soft, too pale, eyes far too full of the Devil, ah, that devilish smile
I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world.
Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.
The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.
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