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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.

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
Males
Indiscriminately
Female
Partiality
However
Zealous
General
Females
Hand
Heirs
Father
Declared
Hands
Remote
Male
Predilection

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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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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.
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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.
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When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
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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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We must take our friends as they are.
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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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Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
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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.
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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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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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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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.
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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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I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
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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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