The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
Interpretation
Humans are driven by hope rather than just seeking pleasure.
Samuel Johnson's quote suggests that the innate tendencies of human thought and aspiration are not merely focused on transient pleasures, but rather on the pursuit of hope and the possibilities that the future can bring. This reflects a deeper psychological truth about human motivation, indicating that hope inspires us to strive for betterment and endure challenges.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one might say, 'As Samuel Johnson pointed out, the natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.'
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.
At the end of the day, is Singapore society better or worse off? That's the test.
The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.
The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it does not matter.
Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested - for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day.
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