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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
Part
Lively
May
Smaller
Good
Wit
Pleasantry
Think
Innocence
Excellencies
Thinking
Innocent
Pleasantries
Species
Pun
Conversation
Suppressed
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Admitted
More quotes by James Boswell
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
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
We must take our friends as they are.
James Boswell
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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
A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinter legs. It is not done well but you are surprised to see it done at all.
James Boswell
Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.
James Boswell
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
But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
James Boswell
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.
James Boswell
If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
James Boswell
What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
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
The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
James Boswell
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
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
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
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell
Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
James Boswell