James Boswell - Johnson Quotes

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

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
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
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
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
My lord and Dr Johnson disputed a little, whether the savage or the London shopkeeper had the best existence; his lordship, as usual, preferring the savage.

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
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
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
JOHNSON: "If I am well acquainted with a man, I can judge with great probability how he will act in any case, without his being restrained by my judging. God may have this probability increased to certainty."

James Boswell
I shall always remember 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