He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.
Interpretation
Life's journey is often influenced by external forces rather than our deliberate efforts, leading some to wait for opportunities instead of actively pursuing them.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson reflects on the nature of life as a voyage, where individuals may prefer to rely on favorable circumstances or luck ('the impulse of the wind') rather than exerting their own effort ('the strokes of the oar'). Many people fall into the trap of waiting for the perfect moment or opportunity ('the gale') instead of taking action to move forward, highlighting the tension between passivity and proactivity in our pursuits.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about taking initiative in life.
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.
He dreamed of London and of a life that mattered.
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?
What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.
For a moment, I believe, there was a stillness. A shocking realization by all things - beetles, dormice, the spiders spinning their webs in the moonlight, even the hot metal of the tracks and the wind in the trees - that Death had just shrieked past like a stinking black eagle and made off with a remarkable man.
To be seventy years old is like climbing the Alps. You reach a snow-crowned summit, and see behind you the deep valley stretching miles and miles away, and before you other summits higher and whiter, which you may have strength to climb, or may not. Then you sit down and meditate and wonder which it will be.
Determine to live life with flair and laughter.
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