Date: Saturday, April 14, 1750

"In this disease of the soul, it is of the utmost importance to apply remedies at the beginning."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday March 24, 1750

"Those who have proceeded so far as to appeal to the tribunal of succeeding times, are not likely to be cured of their infatuation; but all endeavours ought to be used for the prevention of a disease, for which, when it has attained its height, perhaps no remedy will be found in the gardens of ph...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 1751

"Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, March 16, 1751

"[B]ut the mind once habituated to the lusciousness of eulogy, becomes, in a short time, nice and fastidious, and, like a vitiated palate, is incessantly calling for higher gratifications."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Saturday, April 6, 1751

"Austerity is the proper antidote to indulgence; the diseases of mind as well as body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, November 1751

"As any action or posture, long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 8, 1751

"It is necessary to that perfection of which our present state is capable, that the mind and body should both be kept in action; that neither the faculties of the one nor of the other be suffered to grow lax or torpid for want of use; that neither health be purchased by voluntary submission to ig...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, February 12, 1751

"The disproportions of absurdity grow less and less visible, as we are reconciled by degrees to the deformity of a mistress; and falsehood by long use, is assimilated to the mind, as poison to the body."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: September 7, 1751

"The mental disease of the present generation, is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, February 12, 1751

"There are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed in an office not useless either to learning or virtue, if I describe the symptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at first it seizes only th...

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)