James Boswell - Man Quotes

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I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything....

James Boswell
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 danger is, that while a man grows better pleased with himself, he may be growing less pleasing to others. Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has presented.

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
[...] 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
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.

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
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
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
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
Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise.

James Boswell
My definition of man is "a cooking animal." The beasts have memory, judgment, 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
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
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