Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained
Interpretation
This quote highlights how our imagination can amplify our thoughts, especially when we focus on them for too long.
Samuel Johnson's quote suggests that prolonged attention to a particular thought or idea can lead to an exaggerated perception of its importance or impact. Even a well-developed judgment may fall short when it comes to managing the tendencies of the imagination, which can distort reality based on fixation.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming negative thoughts, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of managing one's focus.
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.
Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
The technique of positive thinking is not a technique that transforms you. It is simply repressing the negative aspects of your personality. It is a method of choice. It cannot help awareness; it goes against awareness. Awareness is always choiceless.
Elves and Dragons! Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you. ~Hamfast Gamgee (the Gaffer)
Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone. Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain.
When we give up our images of self-importance and our ideas of what should be, we can help things become what they need to be.
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