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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
Among
Admitted
Part
Lively
May
Smaller
Good
Wit
Pleasantry
Think
Innocence
Excellencies
Thinking
Innocent
Pleasantries
Species
Pun
Conversation
Suppressed
More quotes by James Boswell
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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
As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.
James Boswell
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
We must take our friends as they are.
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
If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
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
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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 find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
James Boswell
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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
Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
James Boswell
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.
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
