James Boswell Quotes

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.

What a curious creature is man; with what a variety of powers and faculties is he endued; yet how easily is he disturbed and put out of order.

The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.

I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything.

That favorite subject, Myself.

Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.

Drinking is in reality an occupation which employs a considerable portion of the time of many people; and to conduct it in the most rational and agreeable manner is one of the great arts of living.

In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.

Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.

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.

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.

If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.

The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.

If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.

No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. In the first place brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking can do for him.

Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.

The connection between authors, printers, and booksellers must be kept up.

I am now to offer some thoughts upon that sameness or familiarity which we frequently find between passages in different authors without quotation. This may be one of three things either what is called Plagiarism, or Imitation, or Coincidence.

Have a sense of piety ever on your mind, and be ever mindful that this is subject to no change, but will last you as long as life and support you in death. Elevate your soul by prayer and by contemplation without mystical enthusiasm.

In comparing these two writers, he [Samuel Johnson] used this expression: "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." This was a short and a figurative statement of his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners, but I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial plates are brighter.

But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?

In every picture there should be shade as well as light.

As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.

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.

If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.