Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.
Interpretation
Samuel Johnson critiques gaming as an activity that lacks social value and productive output.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson asserts that while he does not view gamblers as inherently dishonest, he does consider them unsociable and unprofitable members of society. He highlights that gaming merely shifts wealth without creating any real value or benefit, suggesting that such activities contribute little to social cohesion or economic productivity.
In practice
In a debate on the social impacts of gaming, one might quote Johnson to emphasize the lack of social contribution in gambling.
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.
I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.
Easter means that Christmas worked.
Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?
Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, 'God is hard to find.
The notion that Congress can change the meaning given a constitutional provision by the Court is subversive of the function of judicial review; and it is not the less so because the Court promises to allow it only when the Constitution is moved to the left.
I've crossed these sands many times," said one of the camel drivers one night. "But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent." The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea, or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.
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