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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.
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
Thinking
Innocent
Pleasantries
Species
Pun
Conversation
Suppressed
Among
Admitted
Part
Lively
May
Smaller
Good
Wit
Pleasantry
Think
Innocence
Excellencies
More quotes by James Boswell
In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
James Boswell
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
I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
James Boswell
If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
James Boswell
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
James Boswell
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
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
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
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
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
James Boswell
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
James Boswell
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
James Boswell
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
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell
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
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.
James Boswell
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell
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
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
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
