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.
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be.
Karate is like boiling water: without heat, it returns to it's tepid state
The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole goddamned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.
Lust is the cause of generation_x000D_ _x000D_ Appetite is the support of life_x000D_ _x000D_ Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and_x000D_ _x000D_ Fraud the preservation of its instruments.
Whatever the situation may be, in the recollection of death there is reward and merit. For even the man engrossed in the world benefits from it by acquiring an aversion to this world, since it spoils his contentment and the fullness of his pleasure; and everything which spoils for man his pleasures and his appetites is one of the means of deliverance.
Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.