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
laughter love wear worth
There is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.
quotes understanding
I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
admitted among good smaller
A good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.
real men quality
A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.
freedom men liberty
If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
friendship men people
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
sarcastic dog done
A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinter legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to see it done at all.
drs vines pruning
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.
book writing men
Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.
death character funeral
I make it a kind of pious rule to go to every funeral to which I am invited, both as I wish to pay a proper respect to the dead, unless their characters have been bad, and as I would wish to have the funeral of my own near relations or of myself well attended.
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.
strong thinking wife
My wife, who does not like journalizing, said it was leaving myself embowelled to posterity--a good strong figure. But I think itis rather leaving myself embalmed. It is certainly preserving myself.
wise teacher strong
Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so thathe insinuates his sentiments and taste into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence. Addison's style, like a light wine, pleases everybody from the first. Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished.
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.