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

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
Shade
Picture
Light
Wells
Well
Every

More quotes by James Boswell

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What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
James Boswell
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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
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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.
James Boswell
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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.
James Boswell
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The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
James Boswell
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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.
James Boswell
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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
James Boswell
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Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
James Boswell
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Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
James Boswell
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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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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
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
James Boswell
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If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
James Boswell
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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.
James Boswell
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I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
James Boswell
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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
James Boswell
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That favorite subject, Myself.
James Boswell
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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.
James Boswell
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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
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
James Boswell