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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
Clearly
Silent
Others
Cannot
Better
Proved
Melancholy
Unhappiness

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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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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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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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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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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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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 have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
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No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys port for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. In the first place brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him.
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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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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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If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
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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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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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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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We must take our friends as they are.
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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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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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
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