James Boswell Quotes (23 Quotes)

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.

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

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

He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.

I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnson.

For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.

It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.

That favorite subject, Myself.

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

What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!

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

I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world. In my travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I never felt myself from home.

There is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.

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.

Hell is paved with good intentions.

My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.

Being asked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and military spirit of the old English nobility, (Johnson) replied, Why, my Lord, I'll tell you what is become of it it is gone into the city to look for a fortune

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.

A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.

We must take our friends as they are.