James Boswell Quotes

70 Sourced Quotes

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

James Boswell

I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table, but, as I listened, he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale.

James Boswell

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 at all.

James Boswell

Such groundless fears will arise in the mind, before it has resumed its vigour after sleep!

James Boswell

I think there is a blossom about me of something more distinguished than the generality of mankind.

James Boswell

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

James Boswell

I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnson.

James Boswell

Johnson is dead. Let us go to the next best — there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.

James Boswell

A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk; but most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly.

James Boswell

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