James Boswell Quotes
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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.
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Johnson is dead. Let us go to the next best - there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.
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Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise.
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The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
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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.
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If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
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In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
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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?
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We must take our friends as they are.
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I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.
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Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.
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But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
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The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.
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I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
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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.
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I can't say I enjoy all TV ... I'm enjoying 'Six Feet' because I think it's beautifully written, and wonderfully acted and beautifully produced. I enjoy the odd piece of television.
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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.
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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.
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Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
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Those who would extirpate evil from the world know little of human nature. As well might punch be palatable without souring as existence agreeable without care.
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For my entire career, I wanted to be a director. When I was in the theater, it was very difficult to get directing jobs, and I fell into the acting by default. I got in the habit of accepting whatever came my way. Not things that I disagreed with, though. It's not like I had aspirations - well, I did have aspirations to play Hamlet, which I ended up doing.
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Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.
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He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them.
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All censure of a man's self is oblique praise.