Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
Interpretation
Curiosity drives great minds and is essential throughout life.
This quote by Samuel Johnson emphasizes the vital role that curiosity plays in the minds of intelligent and generous individuals. It suggests that a profound desire to learn and explore is the fundamental passion that shapes their thoughts and actions from the beginning to the end of their lives.
In practice
Using this quote in a motivational speech about the importance of lifelong learning.
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.
It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.
I believe that we have been doing this not primarily to achieve riches or even honour, but rather because we were interested in the work, enjoyed doing it and felt very strongly that it was worthwhile.
Remember who you are and whose you are.
The weak overcomes the strong. The soft overcomes the hard. Everybody in the world knows this, still nobody makes use of it.
The future is carved out of the present moment. Tomorrow's harvest depends upon today's ploughing and sowing.
Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.
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