Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how people often dismiss challenges as impossible when they are simply difficult, reflecting a tendency towards laziness and discouragement.
Samuel Johnson's quote points to a common human behavior where individuals may resist effort and hard work by labeling challenging tasks as impossible. This mindset not only allows them to avoid personal responsibility but also discourages others from pursuing their ambitions. Instead of confronting difficulties, these individuals prefer to belittle the efforts of others, contributing to a culture of idleness and negativity. The quote serves as a reminder that many things may seem impossible at first, but with determination and effort, they can be achieved.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
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.
If one is sufficiently lavish with time, everything possible happens.
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
Confidence, of course is an admirable asset to a golfer, but it should be an unspoken confidence. It is perilous to put it into speech. The gods of golf lie in wait to chasten the presumptious.
The more stitches, the less riches.
In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind.
You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening the door to your own life is, in the end, more difficult than opening the doors to the mysteries of the universe.
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