James Boswell Quotes
I went to my father's at night. He spoke of poor John [Boswell's brother] with disgust. I was shocked and said, "He's your son, and God made him." He answered very harshly, "If my sons are idiots, can I help it?
Quotes to Explore
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A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.
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The British Museum was our first real museum, the property of the public rather than the monarch or the church.
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Yeah... I was a singer as a kid. I had a lot of stage fright, and what's happened with 'Idol,' it has got me past so much of that.
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A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.
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Israel has a fantastic film industry, and many times we are known for our political films or films that have to do with the army. I love the fact that we can show that there are films coming out of Israel that are just for fun.
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The decision that has to be made was whether it was material, whether he knew he was lying under oath, whether he did it willfully. I think that's required of any prosecutor who is charged with an investigation of this.
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My dad was very fun and very adventurous, and from a formative age I learned to value men who would do things on a whim.
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I was physically abused and I retaliated.
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I love to go to casinos with my wife. I play poker, and she's an old-fashioned slot queen. She even has a visor.
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I want to, at the end of the day, be able to say, 'I am a runner.'
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If longevity is the best index to measure a company, a basic requirement is the ability of the corporation to generate new and new leaders.
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We've had Audrey Hepburn, we've had Twiggy, we've had Veruschka, we've had Kate Moss. I'm trying to figure out why I am to blame for skinniness.
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The only show my mother could afford to take me to when I was growing up was 'Cats', for my birthday.
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I need to start honing in on projects that I want to devote my time to and not put my energies into the unattainable ones.
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Some movies to me are like vampires – they suck all of the energy out of me and I don't like that. I like to give the audience energy if I can.
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I've been the best player on every team that I played on, so if I can't be the poster child of your team, then what else is it? It's got to be a black-white issue. Every white player I know who's the best player on their team is the poster child of that team.
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Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.
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In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born and what happened before that is myth.
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Stage fright is not a thing about 'Am I any good?' It's about 'Am I gonna be good tonight?' It's a right-now thing. It helps me. If I went out there thinkin', 'Eh, we'll go slaughter 'em,' I'm positive something would go seriously wrong.
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Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
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If they had said my writing wasn't good enough, fair enough, that's an opinion. But to say it's too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young.
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I'm convinced that I've been hired for jobs because I can cry on cue.
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I think there's really no rhyme or reason as to what keeps a show on air. Surely it's a numbers game, but some of the best shows get canceled, and some shows where you don't totally understand why they're on the air stay on for 15 or 20 years.
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I went to my father's at night. He spoke of poor John [Boswell's brother] with disgust. I was shocked and said, "He's your son, and God made him." He answered very harshly, "If my sons are idiots, can I help it?
