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James Boswell Quotes

Lawyer

James Boswell, born on October 29, 1740, and died on May 19, 1795, was a Scottish lawyer and writer. He is best known for his biography, 'The Life of Samuel Johnson,' which provides a detailed account of the life and thoughts of the 18th-century British writer Samuel Johnson.

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Famous James Boswell Quotes

“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.”

May Character Stories Speak Numbers Air Effects Hero Various Tone Opera Composition Delightful Animation Johnson Succession Subordinates True Story

Book:Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795

Source: Boswell, the great biographer, 1789-1795

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? A man cannot know himself better than by attending to the feelings of his heart and to his external actions, from which he may with tolerable certainty judge "what manner of person he is." I have therefore determined to keep a daily journal.”

People Knows Men Want Heart May Persons Self Feelings Kids Action Judging Determined Horrible Certainty Journal Autobiography Attending Tolerable Older People

Author:James Boswell

“A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.”

May Littles Pages Cake Portions Journal Soup

Author:James Boswell

“A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.”

Men Love May Real Friendship Quality He Man Companion Real Friends Friendship Day Friend Love Happy Friendship Qualities Of A Friend

Author:James Boswell

“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.”

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson

“Dr. Johnson ... sometimes employed himself in chymistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, and sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile, should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles.”

Should May Sometimes Moments Science Experiments Chemistry Drs Employed Johnson Trifles Vines Pruning Dr Johnson

Book:Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

“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.”

Men Giving May Doe Sometimes Grows Company Growing Danger Wine Wit Dread

Book:Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Edition

Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Edition

“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 the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.”

Thinking Should May My Own Conversation Species Wit Innocent Innocence Lively Pun Pleasantries

Book:The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolatory correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published: the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great-Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolatory correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published: the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great-Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished

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

Men Life May Character Form Success Practice Degrees

Author:James Boswell

“I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.”

Writing May Mankind Fancy

Book:Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales

Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales

“My readers, who may at first be apt to consider Quotation as downright pedantry, will be surprised when I assure them, that next to the simple imitation of sounds and gestures, Quotation is the most natural and most frequent habitude of human nature. For, Quotation must not be confined to passages adduced out of authors. He who cites the opinion, or remark, or saying of another, whether it has been written or spoken, is certainly one who quotes; and this we shall find to be universally practiced.”