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No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys port for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. In the first place brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him.

James Boswell

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James Boswell
Age: 54 †
Born: 1740
Born: October 18
Died: 1795
Died: May 19
Biographer
Diarist
Lawyer
Writer
Edinburgh
Scotland
James Boswell I
James
I Boswell
Place
Port
Firsts
Liquor
Aspire
First
Drinking
Must
Wine
Soonest
Men
Hero
Claret
Drink
Aspires
Boys
Brandy

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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them.
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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
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My wife, who does not like journalizing, said it was leaving myself embowelled to posterity--a good strong figure. But I think itis rather leaving myself embalmed. It is certainly preserving myself.
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What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
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I went to my father's at night. He spoke of poor John [Boswell's brother] with disgust. I was shocked and said, He's your son, and God made him. He answered very harshly, If my sons are idiots, can I help it?
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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A Sceptick therefore, who because he finds that Truths are not universally received, doubts of their existence, is just as foolish as a man who should try large shoes upon little feet, and little shoes upon large feet, and finding that they did not fit.
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I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
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We must take our friends as they are.
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When we know exactly all a man's views and how he comes to speak and act so and so, we lose any respect for him, though we may love and admire him.
James Boswell
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It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it but all belief is for it.
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I am sensible that my keenness of temper, and a vanity to be distinguished for the day, make me too often splash in life.... I amresolved to restrain myself and attend more to decorum.
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I argued that the chastity of women was of much more consequence than that of men, as the property and rights of families depend upon it.
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My curiosity to see the melancholy spectacle of the executions was so strong that I could not resist it, although I was sensible that I would suffer much from it.... I got upon a scaffold near the fatal tree so that I could clearly see all the dismal scene.... I was most terribly shocked, and thrown into a very deep melancholy.
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That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell