All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that actions or judgments that do not contribute to positive outcomes or deter negative ones are pointless.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson reflects on the nature of severity, arguing that it should serve a purpose. If severity does not lead to an increase in goodness or the prevention of evil, it is considered idle or meaningless. This implies that both actions and attitudes should aim toward fostering positive change or mitigating harm, promoting a more purposeful approach to how we engage with the world and its challenges.
In practice
This quote can be powerful in discussions about ethical leadership.
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.
Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness.
I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.
It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.
Strange how blind people are! They are horrified by the torture chambers of the Middle Ages, but their arsenals fill them with pride!
But would we know, whether the pretended prophet had really attained a just sentiment of morals? Let us attend to his narration; and we shall soon find, that he bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far only as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers.
If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
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