James Boswell Quotes

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My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.

James Boswell
Boswell: "There," said I, "is a mountain like a cone." "no sir," said he [Johnson). "it is indeed pointed at the top but one side of it is much longer than the other." Another Mountain I called "immense." "No," said he, "but 'tis a considerable protuberance.

James Boswell
Drinking is in reality an occupation which employs a considerable portion of the time of many people; and to conduct it in the most rational and agreeable manner is one of the great arts of living.

James Boswell
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
Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.

James Boswell
Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we can seldom add what will equal the generous first growths of our youth, yet friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it mellow and pleasant.

James Boswell
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
Dr Johnson said the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.

James Boswell
We [Boswell and Johnson] are both Tories; both convinced of the utility of monarchical power, and both lovers of that reverence and affection for a sovereign which constitute loyalty, a principle which I take to be absolutely extinguished in Britain.

James Boswell
I have never yet exerted ambition in rising in the state. But sure I am, no man has made his way better to the best company.

James Boswell
'Sir,' said Mr Johnson, 'a lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.'

James Boswell
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 place brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him.

James Boswell
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 For instance, he tells us that the cow sheds her horns every two years; a most palpable error.... It is wonderful that Buffon who lived so much in the country at his noble seat should have fallen into such a blunder I suppose he has confounded the cow with the deer.

James Boswell
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
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.

James Boswell
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 of an art or science, of which they understood nothing till their brief was delivered, and appear to be much masters of it.

James Boswell
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.

James Boswell
[...] for the Doctor observed, that no man takes upon himself small blemishes without supposing that great abilities are attributed to him; and that, in short, this affectation of candour or modesty was but another kind of indirect self-praise, and had its foundation in vanity.

James Boswell
As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.

James Boswell
I regretted I was not the head of a clan; however, though not possessed of such an hereditary advantage, I would always endeavour to make my tenants follow me.

James Boswell
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
I jumped up on the benches, roared out, "Damn you, you rascals!", hissed and was in the greatest rage. [...] I hated the English; I wished from my soul that the Union was broke and that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn.

James Boswell
If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.

James Boswell
When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well, (said he,) we had good talk." BOSWELL: "Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons."

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

James Boswell
Friendship, the wine of life, should, like a well stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed.

James Boswell
Boswell is pleasant and gay,
For frolic by nature designed;
He heedlessly rattles away
When company is to his mind.

James Boswell
What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.

James Boswell
You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.

James Boswell
His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, the Coliseum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him.

James Boswell