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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.

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
Melancholy
Unhappiness
Clearly
Silent
Others
Cannot
Better
Proved

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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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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
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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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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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That favorite subject, Myself.
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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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.
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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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If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
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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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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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In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.
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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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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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As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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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.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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