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
melancholy silent unhappiness
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
writing yield joy
I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy.
drinking play criticism
We had some port, and drank damnation to the play and eternal remorse to the author.
heart kids men
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.
cake littles pages
A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.
sister brother sibling
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.
strong fire soul
O charitable philosopher, I beg you to help me. My mind is weak but my soul is strong. Kindle that soul, and the sacred fire shall never be extinguished.
leafs infusion johnson
I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnson.
world delight very-good
If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.
memories passion animal
My definition of Man is, a Cooking Animal. The beasts have memory, judgement, 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.
philosophy talking feet
After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."
reality
We must take our friends as they are.
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.
life-is insignificant
What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!