Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
Interpretation
Use precise language instead of grandiose words for trivial issues.
Samuel Johnson emphasizes the importance of clarity and precision in communication. By advising against the use of extravagant vocabulary for minor topics, he advocates for a straightforward approach that values substance over style, encouraging effective dialogue and understanding.
In practice
In a public speech about community issues, you might quote Johnson to emphasize the importance of straightforward discussions.
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.
Truly, if faith is there, the believer cannot hold back... he breaks out into good works.
He that lies with the dogs, riseth with fleas.
You have no need to travel anywhere - journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.
I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied - about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works - and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling.
Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please.
To be unafraid of the judgement of others is the greatest freedom you can have.
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