What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Interpretation
Effort is essential for meaningful work; without it, creation lacks depth and engagement.
Samuel Johnson's quote suggests that the ease with which something is created often reflects the experience of those who engage with it. When a piece of writing or any form of art is produced without genuine effort, it may fail to resonate with its audience, resulting in a lack of pleasure or enjoyment in consuming it. It serves as a reminder that the labor invested into a work contributes significantly to its value and the satisfaction it provides to readers or viewers.
In practice
During a lecture about the importance of hard work in creative processes.
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.
Madness in method, that's genius
The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
Always to see the general in the particular is the very foundation of genius.
It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.
They're only words. You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth, even if it's an unpleasant truth.
It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.
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