On Context
Familiar Quotation

How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!

Quotation in Context

How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

--Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), Lines contributed to Goldsmith’s 'The Traveller'