Quotable Quotes: Samuel Johnson
by Miki Saxon
Are you familiar with the multi-talented Samuel Johnson, “a British author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer?”
His commentary is extensive and touches many subjects; the ones I’m sharing today have great applicability to modern business.
Have you ever wondered why you are willing to trust a stranger or a newcomer more than a known quantity? Johnson offered excellent insight on that attitude when he said, “We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.”
Of course, he also points out that “Man’s chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature,” which fewer and fewer seem to do.
Millions of people today are too lazy or busy to think for themselves, so they base their integrity on ideology instead of knowledge. But as Johnson points out, “Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
People of all ages, but especially younger ones, look for shortcuts to achieve their goals, but Johnson understood that shortcuts don’t accomplish what we want, “What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.”
The next two quotes point to his understanding of those who would innovate.
He said, “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.”
It is often curiosity that leads to new approaches and ideas; Johnson also knew that trying to respond to objections was one of the greatest roadblocks to creating something new—“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
But I think he drops the ball of entrepreneurship with these words, “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.”
If that were true, then history’s innovators, both great and small, have no claim to wisdom.
Finally, for all those who manage or parent or just interface, take to heart these words of wisdom “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
How true.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/merlin/124294460/
