Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.

—Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

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About Samuel Johnson

Portrait of Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (18 September [O.S. 7 September] 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer and polymath who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer (creator of dictionaries). The work for which he is best known...

More quotations from Samuel Johnson

The first years of man must make provision for the last.

—Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

life aging youth old age getting old

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

—Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

sadness adaptation hardship dejection

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.

—Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

life enjoyment enduring

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

—Samuel Johnson

history loss language

His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he despises.

—Samuel Johnson

accomplishment greatness hatred envy aspiration

More quotations tagged with “conflict”

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

—Winston Churchill

What is a minority? The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have stood in the vanguard of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world.

—John B. Gough

history privilege morality suffering nobility heroes conflict minority

Life, as we all know, is conflict, and man, being part of life, is himself an expression of conflict. If he recognizes the fact and accepts it, he is apt, despite the conflict, to know peace and to enjoy it.

—Henry Miller

life acceptance peace enjoyment conflict

Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

—Henri J. M. Nouwen

patience present trust taste discipline control waiting live conflict tomorrow

Certainly I can say that my own childhood was unhappy. This was due to a clash of wills between my mother and myself. My early life was a series of fierce battles, from which my mother invariably emerged the victor. If I could not be seen anywhere, she would say, "Go and find out what Bernard is doing and tell him to stop it."

—Bernard Law Montgomery

childhood victory mother battles conflict

History

12 Aug 2015 Added