A Quote by Samuel Johnson

Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.

Samuel Johnson

Quote Topics

Activity Brighten Cleanse Mere Rust Sorrow Soul Will

Quote Author

Samuel Johnson
English - Writer
September 18, 1709 - December 13, 1784

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

Samuel Johnson

If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o’-the-wisps of the imagination.

Arthur Conan Doyle

But the soul has no culture. The soul has no nations. The soul has no colour or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has its moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can't be stilled.

Gregory David Roberts

These beautiful days ... do not exist as mere pictures - maps hung upon the walls of memory to brighten at times when touched by association or will ... They saturate themselves into every part of the body and live always.

John Muir

. . . if gold rust, what then will iron do?/ For if a priest be foul in whom we trust/ No wonder that a common man should rust. . . .

Geoffrey Chaucer

Repentance out of mere fear is really sorrow for the consequences of sin, sorrow over the danger of sin — it bends the will away from sin, but the heart still clings. But repentance out of conviction over mercy is really sorrow over sin, sorrow over the grievousness of sin — it melts the heart away from sin. It makes the sin itself disgusting to us, so it loses its attractive power over us. We say, ‘this disgusting thing is an affront to the one who died for me. I’m continuing to stab him with it!’

Timothy Keller

Rust rust rust in the engines of love and time.

Leonard Cohen

There are moments of life that we never forget, which brighten and brighten as time steals away.

James Gates Percival

The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.

William J. H. Boetcker

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Isaac Asimov

Immerse yourself in the outdoor experience. It will cleanse your soul and make your a better person.

Fred Bear

The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.

Thomas Traherne

Mere communion with nature, mere contact with the free air, exercise a soothing yet comforting and strengthening influence on the wearied mind, calm the storm of passion, and soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths.

Alexander von Humboldt

The animal is one with its life activity. It does not distinguish the activity from itself. It is its activity. But man makes hislife activity itself an object of his will and consciousness. He has a conscious life activity. It is not a determination with which he is completely identified.

Karl Marx

If your organization’s intentions transcend the mere act of selling a product or service, and it is brave enough to expose its heart and soul, people will respond. They will connect. They will like you. They will talk. They will buy.