Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle; for the calamities of life, like the necessities of Nature, are calls to labor and diligence.
Interpretation
Patience and submission should not be confused with weakness; instead, they can be a call to action and perseverance in the face of life's challenges.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between two contrasting states: patience and submission, which can be seen as virtues, and cowardice and indolence, which are negative traits. He advocates for an active response to life's difficulties as genuine struggles, suggesting that challenges are avenues for growth and hard work rather than excuses for passivity. The essence lies in recognizing that while we may face struggles, they should not lead us to despair but rather motivate us to engage with diligence and effort.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote in a classroom to inspire students to work hard despite 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.
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
We can't cross that bridge until we come to it, but I always like to lay down a pontoon ahead of time.
One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth.
The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows.
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft: With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.
Hard work and humility are essential for spiritual sadhana.
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