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

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
Insignificant
Leading
Life

More quotes by James Boswell

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Dr. Johnson ... sometimes employed himself in chymistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, and sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile, should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles.
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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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.
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We must take our friends as they are.
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.
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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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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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When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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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.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
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As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.
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For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.
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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.
James Boswell
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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
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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
James Boswell
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That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
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I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy.
James Boswell