The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 03 · Chapter 14Eumathes
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[Footnote f: Johnson often conversed, as well as wrote, on riches. In his conversations on the subject, amidst his often indulged laxity of talk, there was ever a deep insight into the human heart. "All the arguments," he once with keen satire remarked, "which are brought to represent poverty as no evil, shew it to be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince you that you may live happily upon a plentiful fortune. So you hear people talking how miserable a king must be, and yet they all wish to be in his place." Boswell vol. i. p. 422.
When Simonides was asked whether it were better to be wise or rich, he gave an answer in favour of wealth. "For," said he, "I always behold the wise lingering at the gates of the wealthy." Aristot. Rhet. ii. 18.]
No. 133. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1751.
Magna quidem, sacris quæ dat præcepta libellis Victrix fortune sapientia. Dicimus autem Hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitæ, Nec jactare jugum, vita didicere magistra. Juv. Sat. xiii. 19.
Let Stoicks ethicks' haughty rules advance To combat fortune, and to conquer chance: Yet happy those, though not so learn'd are thought, Whom life instructs, who by experience taught, For new to come from past misfortunes look, Nor shake the yoke, which galls the more 'tis shook. CREECH.