"That it is vain to shrink from what cannot be avoided, and to hide that from ourselves which must some time be found, is a truth which we all know, but which all neglect, and perhaps none more than the speculative reasoner, whose thoughts are always from home, whose eye wanders over life, whose fancy dances after meteors of happiness kindled by itself, and who examines every thing rather than his own state."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)


Work Title
Date
January 27, 1759.
Metaphor
"That it is vain to shrink from what cannot be avoided, and to hide that from ourselves which must some time be found, is a truth which we all know, but which all neglect, and perhaps none more than the speculative reasoner, whose thoughts are always from home, whose eye wanders over life, whose fancy dances after meteors of happiness kindled by itself, and who examines every thing rather than his own state."
Metaphor in Context
That it is vain to shrink from what cannot be avoided, and to hide that from ourselves which must some time be found, is a truth which we all know, but which all neglect, and perhaps none more than the speculative reasoner, whose thoughts are always from home, whose eye wanders over life, whose fancy dances after meteors of happiness kindled by itself, and who examines every thing rather than his own state.
Provenance
Reading 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

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.