...a natural one. Here I am thinking of Dr. Johnson's remark about the execution of Rev. William Dodd: "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully" (Boswell, 1931/1791, p. 725). Further testimony on this point came from a condemned criminal, who,...

...conference one day, and he suddenly begins to behave in a manifestly loopy fashion. As Dr. Johnson said, "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."* By the same token, an incident of that kind, drawing attention to the hazards of presidential dementia,...

...permanent limits to American economic growth and standards of living. As England's Dr. Johnson once said, "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." The energy crisis certainly caught the attention of the American public. That the postwar era of cheap...

...hypocrites do: they pull long faces to let men know they are fasting. mHttHEUI 6: I. 5. II, "\\Tien a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," wrote Dr. Johnson. In the early days of Christianity, ashes were placed on the heads of penitents at...

...hanging. This phenomenon is similar to the one described by Samuel Johnson, in his famous observation: "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."24 In many instances, the promises to God made in the foxhole have been fulfilled when...

...its part in the battle for human rights. "Depend upon it," said Dr. Johnson, "when a man knows that he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. " Constant readers of the admirable daily Press (not excluding the equally admirable sabbath newspapers,...

...once said, "Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds." 13. The Inverse Problem When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, observed Samuel Johnson, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. The imminence of brain surgery has the...

...and the 'historical agenda' has him scheduled for the chopping block. It's like Samuel Johnson said: 'Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be...fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.' Not even Charles is silly enough to let his petty irritation with Wentworth stand in the way of staying...

...opens his account of the first day of the trial with another proleptic gesture, quoting Dr. Johnson: "'Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be...fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully'" (70). Hoskins suggests that the prospect of capital punishment "concentrated the mind not only of the...

...this respect a death sentence was of inestimable value. We may remember Samuel Johnson's comment — "when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully" — as satire, and when Johnson, one of the most prominent of the early English penal reformers, said...