Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Endlessly Fascinating?

I entered a contest today where you had to tell what one man you would like to meet and dine with in history. Who would you pick? I thought of the following:

- Otto Frank

- G.K. Chesterton

- C.S. Lewis

- Winston Churchill

(Geez ... is that a theme or what? In my defense, they were just the first to pop into my head!)

But my final answer was: Samuel Johnson.  

Noted as a man of "distinguished letters" -- perhaps the most distinguished in all of English history -- he would have to be endlessly fascinating. Can you imagine the stories he could tell? And he was oh so wise! Here is an interesting quotation from Johnson:

"Every man is to take care of his own wisdom and his own virtue, without minding too much what others think." - Johnson

Quite the traveler, Johnson even made his way north all the way to the Isle of Skye. Here's an interesting thought on traveling:

"As the Spanish proverb says, 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him,' so it is with travelling, –-a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge."  - Johnson

4 comments:

Brittany said...

Ashli, Brittany (Dane) Gubser here. Hilary and I were buds back at TRBC, and I've enjoyed following both of your blogs over the past year or so.

I smiled when I saw your post, because I'm pretty sure the blog you're referring to is Pioneer Woman, yes? It would be so nice to win one of those mixers!

Keep up the potpourri of posts; they're quite lovely.

Ashli said...

Hi Brittany! Yes -- it was my first time entering a Pioneer Woman contest. Wouldn't it be fun to win?! And how easy just to tell her who you'd want to meet and dine with!

Cbell said...

Ha! I have entered the same contest. My person was John Adams.

Ashli said...

CB - I think you and I are the only ones that didn't name Jesus or our grandpa!

 
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