List of James Boswell Quotes

A Sceptick Therefore, Who Because He Finds That Truths Are Not Universally Received, Doubts Of Their Existence, Is Just As Foolish As A Man Who Should Try Large Shoes Upon Little Feet, And Little Shoes Upon Large Feet, And Finding That They Did Not Fit.

Influence Must Ever Be In Proportion To Property; And It Is Right It Should.

In Every Place, Where There Is Any Thing Worthy Of Observation, There Should Be A Short Printed Directory For Strangers.

All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise.

What An Insignificant Life Is This Which I Am Now Leading!

My Mind Was, As It Were, Strongly Impregnated With The Johnsonian Ether.

I Find I Journalize Too Tediously. Let Me Try To Abbreviate.

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.

Boswell, When He Speaks Of His Life Of Johnson, Calls It My Magnum Opus, But It May More Properly Be Called His Opera, For It Is Truly A Composition Founded On A True Story, In Which There Is A Hero With A Number Of Subordinate Characters, And An Alternate Succession Of Recitative And Airs Of Various Tone And Effect, All However In Delightful Animation.

I Argued That The Chastity Of Women Was Of Much More Consequence Than That Of Men, As The Property And Rights Of Families Depend Upon It.

After I Went To Bed I Had A Curious Fancy As To Dreams. In Sleep The Doors Of The Mind Are Shut, And Thoughts Come Jumping In At The Windows. They Tumble Headlong, And Therefore Are So Disorderly And Strange. Sometimes They Are Stout And Light On Their Feet, And Then They Are Rational Dreams.

I Think There Is A Blossom About Me Of Something More Distinguished Than The Generality Of Mankind.