“Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by the absence of some fictitious good; of something which is not required by any real want of nature, which has not in itself any power of gratification, and which neither reason nor fancy would have prompted us to wish, did we not see it in the possession of others.” WantMadeRealReasonEvilWishMiseryPossessionAbsenceUnhappyFancyConsumerismGratificationOverconsumption Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius
“Men marry for fortune, and sometimes to please their fancy; but, much oftener than is suspected, they consider what the world will say of it--how such a woman in their friends' eyes will look at the head of a table. Hence we see so many insipid beauties made wives of, that could not have struck the particular fancy of any man that had any fancy at all.” MenWorldLooksMadeSometimesEyeWifeParticularPleaseTablesFortuneFancyInsipid Book:Miscellaneous prose (1798-1834) Source: Miscellaneous prose (1798-1834)