Quote

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.

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
Humans
Evil
Without
Nature
Well
Care
Would
Littles
Extirpate
World
Little
Palatable
Wells
Agreeable
Might
Punch
Human
Existence

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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
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We must take our friends as they are.
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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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Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
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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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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.
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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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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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.
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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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[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
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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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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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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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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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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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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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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.
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