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  ...on from crime to crime, heedless and remorseless, if misery did not stand in our way, and our own pains admonish us of our folly.
Almost all the moral good, which is left among us, is the apparent effect of physical evil.
Goodness is divided by divines into soberness, righteousness and godliness. Let it be examined how each of these duties would be practised, if there were no physical evil to enforce it.
Sobriety, or temperance, is nothing but the forbearance of pleasure; and If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?   We see every hour those in whom the desire of present indulgence overpowers all sense of past and all foresight of future misery. In a remission of the gout, the drunkard returns to his wine, and the glutton to his feast; and if neither disease nor poverty were felt or dreaded, every one would sink down in idle sensuality, without any care of others, or of himself. To eat and drink, and lie down to sleep, would be the whole business of mankind.
Righteousness, or the system of social...   Johnson, Samuel

Excerpt from The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 04 The Adventurer; The Idler · This quote is about pleasure · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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