"Cultivated ground has few weeds; a mind occupied by lawful business, has little room for useless regret."

— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)


Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell
Date
April 5, 1781, 1788
Metaphor
"Cultivated ground has few weeds; a mind occupied by lawful business, has little room for useless regret."
Metaphor in Context
I do not exhort you to reason yourself into tranquillity. We must first pray, and then labour; first implore the blessing of God, and those means which he puts into our hands. Cultivated ground has few weeds; a mind occupied by lawful business, has little room for useless regret.
(p 192)
Provenance
Searching "mind" in Google Books
Citation
See Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. To which are Added Some Poems Never Before Printed. Published from the Original MSS. in her Possession, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. 2 vols. (London: Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1788). <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
10/12/2013

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