103 Quotes by James Boswell

I am, I flatter myself, completely a citizen of the world. In my travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica, France, I never felt myself from home.

My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.

I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.

I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.

Influence must ever be in proportion to property; and it is right it should.

As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.

In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers.

It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.

My readers, who may at first be apt to consider Quotation as downright pedantry, will be surprised when I assure them, that next to the simple imitation of sounds and gestures, Quotation is the most natural and most frequent habitude of human nature. For, Quotation must not be confined to passages adduced out of authors. He who cites the opinion, or remark, or saying of another, whether it has been written or spoken, is certainly one who quotes; and this we shall find to be universally practiced.