Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Thinking
Figures
Like
Certainly
Embalmed
Wife
Preserving
Rather
Autobiography
Strong
Posterity
Doe
Immortality
Good
Leaving
Think
Figure

More quotes by James Boswell

Image
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.
James Boswell
Image
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
James Boswell
Image
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
James Boswell
Image
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
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
Image
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell
Image
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
Image
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
James Boswell
Image
We must take our friends as they are.
James Boswell
Image
But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
James Boswell
Image
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?
James Boswell
Image
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
Image
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