James Boswell Quotes - Page 3

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Books Character Country Drinking Friendship Mankind Property

I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world. In my travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I never felt myself from home.

James Boswell

Home, Switzerland, Germany

'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (ed. F. A. Pottle, 1936) 14 August 1773

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Boswell: But, Sir is it not somewhat singular that you should happen to have Cocker's Arithmetic about you on your journey? Dr. Johnson: Why, Sir if you are to have but one book with you upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book of science is inexhaustible.

James Boswell

Book, Science, Journey

James Boswell (1859). “Journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson LL.D.: containing some poetical pieces by Dr. Johnson, relative to the tour, and never before published ... : with an authentic account of the distresses and escape of the grandson of King James II. in the year 1746”, p.104

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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

Science, Drs, Vines

James Boswell (2008). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.125, ReadHowYouWant.com

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Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials. He thinks he has enough to raise a large and stately edifice; but after he has arranged, compacted and polished, his work turns out to be a very small performance. The authour however like the builder, knows how much labour his work has cost him; and therefore estimates it at a higher rate than other people think it deserves

James Boswell

Book, Writing, Men

James Boswell (2002). “The Journal of a Tour to Corsica and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli”

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Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.

James Boswell

Book, Writing, Men

James Boswell (1768). “An Account of Corsica: The Journal of a Tour to that Island : and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli”, p.18

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Nay, Sir, it was not the WINE that made your head ache, but the SENSE that I put into it' 'What, Sir! will sense make the head ache?' 'Yes, Sir, (with a smile,) when it is not used to it.

James Boswell

Wine, Used, Made

James Boswell (1804). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works ... and Various Original Pieces ... Never Before Published ...”, p.410

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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.

James Boswell

Ambition, Vanity, Manners

James Boswell (2001). “Boswell's Edinburgh Journals 1767-1786”, Mercat Press Books

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We must take our friends as they are.

James Boswell

Reality

James Boswell, Marlies K. Danziger (1989). “Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."

James Boswell

Philosophy, Science, Feet

James Boswell (1998). “Life of Johnson”, p.333, Oxford University Press, USA

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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

Men, Shoes, Feet

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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

Death, Strong, Tree

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To abolish a status, which in all ages God has sanctioned, and man has continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects; but it would be extreme cruelty to the African Savages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life; especially now when their passage to the West-Indies and their treatment there is humanely regulated.

James Boswell

Country, Men, West Indies

James Boswell (1874). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.239

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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.

James Boswell

Latin, Should Have, Drs

James Boswell, John Wilson Croker (1831). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides: In Five Volumes”, p.384

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In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers.

James Boswell

Stranger, Should, Worthy

James Boswell (1786). “The journal of a tour to the Hebrides: with Samuel Johnson, LL. D.”, p.49

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Influence must ever be in proportion to property; and it is right it should.

James Boswell

Influence, Should, Proportion

James Boswell (1874). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.233

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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

Father, Hands, Males

James Boswell (1851). “The life of Samuel Johnson. [Followed by] The journal of a tour to the Hebrides”, p.265

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What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!

James Boswell

Life Is, Insignificant

James Boswell (2008). “James Boswell: As His Contemporaries Saw Him”, p.188, Associated University Presse

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My definition of Man is, a Cooking Animal. The beasts have memory, judgement, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook....Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats.

James Boswell

Memories, Passion, Animal

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We had some port, and drank damnation to the play and eternal remorse to the author.

James Boswell

Drinking, Play, Criticism

James Boswell (1956). “London Journal, 1762-1763, as First Published in 1950 from the Original Manuscript”

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Why should not the knowledge, the skill, the expertness, the assiduity, and the spirited hazards of trade and commerce, when crowned with success, be entitled to give those flattering distinctions by which mankind are so universally captivated? Such are the specious, but false arguments for a proposition which always will find numerous advocates, in a nation where men are every day starting up from obscurity to wealth. To refute them is needless. The general sense of mankind cries out, with irresistible force, "Un gentilhomme est toujours gentilhomme.

James Boswell

Men, Starting Up, Class

James Boswell (2008). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.249, Wordsworth Editions

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But the question is, whether the animals who endure such sufferings of various kinds for the service and entertainment of man, would accept existence upon the terms on which they have it.

James Boswell

Animal, Men, Suffering

James Boswell (1791). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published. The Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great-Britain, for Near Half a Century, During which He Flourished. In Two Volumes”, p.71

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I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.

James Boswell

Death, Character, Funeral

James Boswell (2001). “Boswell's Edinburgh Journals 1767-1786”, Mercat Press Books

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[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.

James Boswell

Character, Men, Mirrors

James Boswell, John Wilson Crocker (1853). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Their Tour to the Hebrides”, p.572

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There is indeed a strange prejudice against Quotation.

James Boswell

Prejudice, Strange, Quotations

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I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.

James Boswell

Trying, Journalism, Let Me

James Boswell, Marlies K. Danziger (1989). “Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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Born: October 29, 1740
Died: May 19, 1795
Occupation: Lawyer
Cite this Page: Citation

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