"What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more"
About this Quote
Johnson skewers the idea that beliefs are born from pure reason by putting a price tag on certainty. The joke is blunt and deliberately vulgar: doctrines become "plain and clear" not when evidence accumulates, but when money arrives. By naming a tidy sum - "about two hundred pounds a year" - he turns lofty conviction into salaried labor. Clarity, in this view, is less a breakthrough than a retainer.
The subtext is a diagnosis of institutional thinking. Johnson is writing in an England where clergy, academics, pamphleteers, and political writers often lived by patronage and preferment. A doctrine isn't merely argued; it's employed. Once your income depends on a position, ambiguity becomes a luxury you can't afford. So the mind does what any professional mind does under pressure: it rationalizes. It narrows, edits, and arranges the world until the paycheck looks like providence.
The second line sharpens the blade: if you need yesterday's truth to become today's error, "two hundred more" will manage the conversion. Johnson isn't claiming everyone is corrupt in the petty, sneering sense. He's pointing at something more modern: incentives don't just buy speech; they buy the feeling of sincerity. People can be fully persuaded by what pays them, because the argument is built after the commitment. It's satire with a moral core: beware the confidence of those whose clarity is underwritten.
The subtext is a diagnosis of institutional thinking. Johnson is writing in an England where clergy, academics, pamphleteers, and political writers often lived by patronage and preferment. A doctrine isn't merely argued; it's employed. Once your income depends on a position, ambiguity becomes a luxury you can't afford. So the mind does what any professional mind does under pressure: it rationalizes. It narrows, edits, and arranges the world until the paycheck looks like providence.
The second line sharpens the blade: if you need yesterday's truth to become today's error, "two hundred more" will manage the conversion. Johnson isn't claiming everyone is corrupt in the petty, sneering sense. He's pointing at something more modern: incentives don't just buy speech; they buy the feeling of sincerity. People can be fully persuaded by what pays them, because the argument is built after the commitment. It's satire with a moral core: beware the confidence of those whose clarity is underwritten.
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