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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.

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
Impregnated
Ether
Strongly
Mind

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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.
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When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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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.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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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.
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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.
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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That favorite subject, Myself.
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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.
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If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
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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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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
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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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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.
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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.
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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
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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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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.
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What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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