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)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"It is certain, that, with or without our consent, many of the few moments allotted us will slide imperceptibly away, and that the mind will break, from confinement to its stated task, into sudden excursions."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"He often perceives himself transported, he knows not how, to distant tracts of thought, and returns to his first object as from a dream, without knowing when he forsook it, or how long he has been abstracted from it."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"But this invisible riot of the mind, this secret prodigality of being, is secure from detection, and fearless of reproach."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"The infatuation strengthens by degrees, and like the poison of opiates, weakens his powers, without any external symptoms of malignity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"It is, perhaps, not impossible to promote the cure of this mental malady, by close application to some new study, which may pour in fresh ideas, and keep curiosity in perpetual motion."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"This is a formidable and obstinate disease of the intellect, of which, when it has once become radicated by time, the remedy is one of the hardest tasks of reason and of virtue."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"The loose sparkles of thoughtless wit may give new light to the mind, and the gay contention for paradoxical positions rectify the opinions."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)

Date: Tuesday, January 22, 1751

"[B]ut we range delighted and jocund through the gay apartments of the palace, because nothing is impressed by them on the mind but joy and festivity."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)