Notes on Johnson’s Selected Essays
These notes are ramdom personal relfections based on Selected Essays by Samuel Johnson, Penguin Classics, 2003. The Rambler (1750-52) 1. Being able to speak about any topic at the beginning of a new venture is troublesome and it is best to under promise and over deliver. An author should not boast of his talent but let his writing speak for itself. 2. The human mind moves from hope to hope rather then from pleasure to pleasure. 3. Virtue and vice are not two sides of the same coin. 6. We can’t be free from troubles but we can rise above them. Although we can never hope for total equaniminity we can strive towards it. People with little to do are troubled by small things. Rest without work is not restful. To seek happiness by changing anything but one’s own disposition is fruitless. Contemplation is essential to virtue as virtute involves long term goods. 7. Religion involves contemplating the future not enjoying the present. 8. Just as matter is 99% empty space so our lives are 99% wa