Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.
Interpretation
Life is inherently unpredictable, making stability elusive for all living things.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the inherent uncertainty of life. It suggests that because life is filled with unpredictability and change, any foundation that relies on living elements—such as relationships, endeavors, or aspirations—will also be subject to instability and fluctuation. This reflects a philosophical perspective on the nature of existence and the acceptance of uncertainty as a fundamental aspect of living.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing change and uncertainty.
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 Iraq war was fought by one-half of one percent of us. And unless we were part of that small group or had a relative who was, we went about our lives as usual most of the time: no draft, no new taxes, no changes. Not so for the small group who fought the war and their families.
Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.
A gastronomer who is not an environmentalis t is just stupid. Whereas an environmentalis t who is not a gastronomer is sad. It's possible to change the world even while preserving the concept of the right of pleasure.
Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth.
Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen, and you kill his body; deprive him of self-respect and you kill his spirit.
The underlying assumption that human nature is basically the same at all times, everywhere, and obeys eternal laws beyond human control, is a conception that only a handful of bold thinkers have dared to question.
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