Showing 51–100 of 126 entries
"If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ii. 1755.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. iii. 1759.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. vi. 1763.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an access of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A very unclubable man."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. ix. 1764.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. iii. 1769.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. iv.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. v. 1770.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iii. Chap. viii. 1772.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iv. Chap. ii. 1773.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. iv. Chap. ii. 1773.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Was ever poet so trusted before?"
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. vi. 1774.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. vi. 1775.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A man will turn over half a library to make one book."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. viii. 1775.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Hell is paved with good intentions."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. v. Chap. ix.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly,--but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"All this [wealth] excludes but one evil,--poverty."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"He was so generally civil that nobody thanked him for it."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. iii. 1778.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of "The Natural History of Iceland," from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly (Ch. lxxii. Concerning snakes) thus: "There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.""
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. iv. 1778.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"As the Spanish proverb says, "He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him," so it is in travelling,--a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. v. 1778.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. vi. 1778.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing." . . . There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false.""
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had.""
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merits handsomely allowed."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me."
Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1783.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain