Quote

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

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
Poor
Shocked
Help
Spoke
Boswell
Father
Disgusting
Harshly
Helping
Idiot
Disgust
Night
John
Idiots
Made
Son
Answered
Brother
Sons
Went
Spokes

More quotes by 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
We must take our friends as they are.
James Boswell
Image
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
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 have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
James Boswell
Image
That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
Image
In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.
James Boswell
Image
In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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
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.
James Boswell
Image
If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
James Boswell
Image
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.
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
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
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
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.
James Boswell
Image
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.
James Boswell
Image
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
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