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

More quotes by James Boswell

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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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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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When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
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What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
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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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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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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 is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
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That favorite subject, Myself.
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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.
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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.
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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.
James Boswell
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Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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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.
James Boswell