Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it.
Interpretation
Voluntary ignorance is a serious moral failing, and one who chooses not to educate themselves bears responsibility for the consequences.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the moral obligations of individuals to seek knowledge and understanding. It suggests that when people are willfully ignorant, they not only fail to protect themselves but may also cause harm to others. The choice to remain uninformed is likened to a crime, making it crucial for individuals to actively pursue knowledge to prevent ignorance from leading to suffering or injustice.
In practice
A teacher discussing the importance of continuous education in a classroom.
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.
Sin forsaken is one of the best evidences of sin forgiven.
What you do for yourself, any gesture of kindness, any gesture of gentleness, any gesture of honesty and clear seeing toward yourself, will affect how you experience your world. In fact, it will transform how you experience the world. What you do for yourself, youβre doing for others, and what you do for others, youβre doing for yourself.
In magic, today as always, the effect is what counts. The method or methods used are always purely secondary.
As I express my gratitude, I become more deeply aware of it. And the greater my awareness, the greater my need to express it. What happens here is a spiraling ascent, a process of growth in ever expanding circles around a steady center.
Undoubtedly a man is to labor to better his condition, but first to better himself.
As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.
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