Quote

In every picture there should be shade as well as light.

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
Picture
Light
Wells
Well
Every
Shade

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
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
James Boswell
Image
What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
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
Image
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
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
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
We must take our friends as they are.
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
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
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
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
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
What a curious creature is man with what a variety of powers and faculties is he endued yet how easily is he disturbed and put out of order.
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
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
James Boswell
Image
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
James Boswell
Image
But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
James Boswell
Image
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell