If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that without virtue, even the greatest advancements or skills could lead to chaos and insecurity.
Samuel Johnson's quote explores the relationship between virtue and security in society. He suggests that if all individuals were virtuous, he would happily teach them to fly, representing the human capacity for greatness and innovation. However, he raises a critical concern: if malevolent individuals could access such power freely, it would undermine the safety of the virtuous. This highlights the importance of moral character in the exercise of power and innovation, suggesting that without a foundation of virtue, advances can lead to greater risks than benefits.
In practice
During a speech about ethical leadership, one could reference this quote to emphasize the need for virtue in positions of power.
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.
Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.
Cheap food is an illusion. There is no such thing as cheap food. The real cost of the food is paid somewhere. And if it isn't paid at the cash register, it's charged to the environment or to the public purse in the form of subsidies. And it's charged to your health.
No one may pride himself at being more than an individual, and no one despondently think that he is not an individual.
If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.
Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.
You don't reason with intellectuals. You shoot them.
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