James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish biographer and diarist, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson, which the modern Johnsonian critic Harold Bloom has claimed is the greatest biography written in the English language...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth29 October 1740
men views may
When we know exactly all a man's views and how he comes to speak and act so and so, we lose any respect for him, though we may love and admire him.
evil world care
Those who would extirpate evil from the world know little of human nature. As well might punch be palatable without souring as existence agreeable without care.
littles little-things strict
One must be strict even in little things.
home germany citizens
I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world. In my travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I never felt myself from home.
mind
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
trying journalism let-me
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
writing fancy may
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
influence proportion should
Influence must ever be in proportion to property; and it is right it should.
country kings church
As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.
stranger should worthy
In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers.
years world belief
It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.
simple may gestures
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.
friendship wine should
Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.
family men rights
I argued that the chastity of women was of much more consequence than that of men, as the property and rights of families depend upon it.