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
death strong tree
My curiosity to see the melancholy spectacle of the executions was so strong that I could not resist it, although I was sensible that I would suffer much from it.... I got upon a scaffold near the fatal tree so that I could clearly see all the dismal scene.... I was most terribly shocked, and thrown into a very deep melancholy.
tree fruit enough
In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.
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
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.
believe ancient quotations
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
book science journey
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.