James Boswell Quotes

59 quotes in 833 categories

• A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.
• I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.
• If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
• When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
• 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…
• 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…
• The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
• Dr. Johnson ... sometimes employed himself in chymistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, and sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may…
• Buffon, who, with all his theoretical ingenuity and extraordinary eloquence, I suspect had little actual information in the science on which he wrote so admirably…
• We often observe in lawyers, who as Quicquid agunt homines is the matter of law suits, are sometimes obliged to pick up a temporary knowledge…
• No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. In the first…
• Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. Sometimes it does. But the…
• The connection between authors, printers, and booksellers must be kept up.
• Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.
• What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
• 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…
• I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnson.
• It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.
• If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.
• 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…

Browse James Boswell Quotes by Category