There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
Interpretation
Over-caution can lead to missed opportunities when faced with difficult choices.
Samuel Johnson's quote reflects the idea that when confronted with two opposing goods, we may become so overly cautious in trying to avoid making a wrong choice that we end up being unable to choose either option. It emphasizes the importance of balancing prudence with the willingness to engage with life's complexities, suggesting that sometimes we must take risks to achieve meaningful outcomes.
In practice
A speaker addressing a group about decision-making in business can use this quote to highlight the dangers of excessive caution.
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.
You're worth something because God says you're worth something-not because of what people think or say about you.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
The ending of sorrow is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is always within the shadow of ignorance. Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence.
To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.
For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making.
Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.