It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy unenvied, to be healthful without physic, and secure without a guard; to obtain from the bounty of nature, what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of artists and attendants, of flatterers and spies.
Interpretation
Poverty can bring a unique happiness free from envy and complications that wealth often entails.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson reflects on the unexpected advantages of poverty, suggesting that those who are poor can experience a simplicity of joy that wealthy individuals often lack. He implies that wealth brings complications such as envy, the need for constant protection, and dependence on others to maintain their lifestyle, while those who are poor can find happiness and security directly from nature without the encumbrances of wealth.
In practice
This quote could be shared at a charity event to highlight the value of happiness beyond material wealth.
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.
More choice doesn't make us happy, and we understand that no one has infinite choices about how to live life.
Even people who believe they deserve to be happy and have nice things often don't feel worthy once they have them.
It seems like what happens when we play games is that we go into a psychological state called eustress, or positive stress. It's basically the same as negative stress in the sense that we get our adrenaline up, you know, our breathing rate quickens, our pulse quickens.
Certainly there are times in all of our lives when bad things happen, or things don’t turn out as we had hoped. But that’s when we we must a decision that we’re going to be happy inspite of our circumstances.
This is my creed: Happiness is the only good; reason the only torch; justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest.
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
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