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.
Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.
People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross- legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now.
If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.
Presence is a state of inner spaciousness
Rose early to seek God and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?
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