To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self. — Samuel Johnson

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.

Author: Samuel Johnson

Insight: We usually think of admiration as something passive—you see someone brilliant and feel small by comparison. But Johnson points to something stranger: loving someone genuinely great actually changes you. It's not about proximity or name-dropping. It's that when you really pay attention to excellence—to how someone thinks, creates, perseveres—you start absorbing their standards. Their rigor becomes contagious. This matters more than ever when we're drowning in celebrity worship and parasocial relationships. Johnson isn't talking about that hollow fandom feeling. He means the kind of love that requires you to actually understand what makes someone great, which means you have to stretch yourself mentally to meet them there. When you do that work—really studying someone you respect, wrestling with their ideas, trying to understand their choices—you're not just learning about them. You're learning what you're capable of. The counterintuitive part: you don't have to become them to be changed by them. You become more yourself, just with higher standards and deeper questions. That's the alchemy Johnson recognized. Loving greatness in others is one of the most practical ways to grow.

Source: Boswell, Life of Johnson, 1791