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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?
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
Father
Disgusting
Harshly
Helping
Idiot
Disgust
Night
John
Idiots
Made
Son
Answered
Brother
Sons
Went
Spokes
Poor
Shocked
Help
Spoke
Boswell
More quotes by James Boswell
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
James Boswell
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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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
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
After I went to bed I had a curious fancy as to dreams. In sleep the doors of the mind are shut, and thoughts come jumping in at the windows. They tumble headlong, and therefore are so disorderly and strange. Sometimes they are stout and light on their feet, and then they are rational dreams.
James Boswell
That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
James Boswell
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
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.
James Boswell
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
James Boswell
In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
James Boswell
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
But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
James Boswell
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.
James Boswell
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
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
We must take our friends as they are.
James Boswell
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell
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
The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
James Boswell