A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of of being in danger.
Interpretation
This quote compares the confinement of a ship to that of a jail, highlighting the discomfort and dangers of being at sea.
Samuel Johnson contrasts the experience of being confined on a ship with that of being imprisoned in a jail, suggesting that a ship can be even more unbearable. He points out that in jail, one may find better facilities and companionship, while a ship is perilous and lacks comfort, emphasizing the grave discomfort that can come from being trapped in a confined space with the danger of the sea.
In practice
This quote can be used to illustrate the discomfort of travel in a motivational speech about overcoming 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.
Time starts out as a notion. But after you turn fifty, time is not a notion anymore but a fact that you start feeling clearly, and in a way, it pushes you to become present in the present.
The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.
Every time we sit at a table at night or in the morning to enjoy the fruits and grain and vegetables from our good earth, remember that they come from the work of men and women and children who have been exploited for generations.
Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.
It's only now that I see the bigger picture: Our ways to attain spirituality may be different - through diverse religious, customs and traditions - but they're modeled on similar principles and ideologies. That's what ties us all together.
The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
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