Quote

What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!

James Boswell

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Life
Insignificant
Leading

More quotes by James Boswell

Image
What a curious creature is man with what a variety of powers and faculties is he endued yet how easily is he disturbed and put out of order.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
James Boswell
Image
We must take our friends as they are.
James Boswell
Image
I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
James Boswell
Image
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
James Boswell
Image
After I went to bed I had a curious fancy as to dreams. In sleep the doors of the mind are shut, and thoughts come jumping in at the windows. They tumble headlong, and therefore are so disorderly and strange. Sometimes they are stout and light on their feet, and then they are rational dreams.
James Boswell
Image
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell
Image
Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
James Boswell
Image
That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
Image
Have a sense of piety ever on your mind, and be ever mindful that this is subject to no change, but will last you as long as life and support you in death. Elevate your soul by prayer and by contemplation without mystical enthusiasm.
James Boswell
Image
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
Image
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell
Image
Those who would extirpate evil from the world know little of human nature. As well might punch be palatable without souring as existence agreeable without care.
James Boswell
Image
My father had declared a predilection for heirs general, that is, males and females indiscriminately.... I, on the other hand, had a zealous partiality for heirs male, however remote.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.
James Boswell