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
fifty man suppose thousand whom woman women
Boswell: "Pray, Sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one woman in particular?" Johnson: "Ay, Sir, fifty thousand
thinking mankind distinguished
I think there is a blossom about me of something more distinguished than the generality of mankind.
men new-friends he-man
The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
ambition vanity manners
I am sensible that my keenness of temper, and a vanity to be distinguished for the day, make me too often splash in life.... I amresolved to restrain myself and attend more to decorum.
men miserable every-man
It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.
quotes understanding
I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
laughter love wear worth
There is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.
quotes
He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
animal men suffering
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.
men generosity prodigals
If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
melancholy silent unhappiness
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
mother ignorance worship
Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
whimsical pleasure whim
The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.
prejudice strange quotations
There is indeed a strange prejudice against Quotation.