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1 " Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. "
― James Boswell , The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3
2 " Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. "
― James Boswell , Life of Johnson, Volume 2 1765-1776
3 " The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book. "
― James Boswell , The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2
4 " Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries. "
― James Boswell , The Life of Samuel Johnson Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Vol 2
5 " People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.—You might teach making of shoes by lectures! "
6 " You can never be wise unless you love reading. "
― James Boswell ,
7 " Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. "
8 " 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 acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over. "
― James Boswell
9 " This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts. "
10 " Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. "
11 " Hell is paved with good intentions. "
12 " My definition of man is a cooking animal. The beasts have memory, judgement, and the faculties and passions of our minds in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook. "
― James Boswell , The Journals, 1762-95
13 " If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. "
14 " Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea? "
15 " It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time. "
― James Boswell , The Life of Samuel Johnson
16 " My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times ... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly. "
17 " A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. "
18 " Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. "
19 " What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence. "
20 " [Dr. Johnson thought that] Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves. "
― James Boswell , Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
