"The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another."
— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Author
Work Title
Date
September 1, 1759.
Metaphor
"The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another."
Metaphor in Context
The incursions of troublesome thoughts are often violent and importunate; and it is not easy to a mind accustomed to their inroads to expel them immediately by putting better images into motion; but this enemy of quiet is above all others weakened by every defeat; the reflection which has been once overpowered and ejected, seldom returns with any formidable vehemence.
Employment is the great instrument of intellectual dominion. The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another. The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do, or who do nothing. We must be busy about good or evil, and he to whom the present offers nothing will often be looking backward on the past.
Employment is the great instrument of intellectual dominion. The mind cannot retire from its enemy into total vacancy, or turn aside from one object but by passing to another. The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do, or who do nothing. We must be busy about good or evil, and he to whom the present offers nothing will often be looking backward on the past.
Categories
Provenance
Reading at The Yale Digital Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson.
Citation
Samuel Johnson, The Idler and The Adventurer, vol. 2 of The Works of Samuel Johnson (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963). <Link to www.yalejohnson.com>
Date of Entry
04/17/2018
