Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
Interpretation
Life is a journey of seeking desires rather than simply experiencing pleasure.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the idea that human existence is characterized more by the pursuit of wants and desires than by the moments of enjoyment that may accompany the fulfillment of those wants. It suggests that life consists of a continuous striving for new goals and aspirations, indicating that the process of wanting is an inherent part of the human experience.
In practice
In a motivational speech discussing the importance of setting goals.
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.
The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again, their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.
Idleness is the parent of psychology.
Some men are like musical glasses; to produce their finest tones you must keep them wet.
I think people have to set up little battles. They have to demonize people whom they disagree with or feel threatened by. But it's the ideological framing of the debate that scares me.
Life is elsewhere. Cross frontiers. Fly away.
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