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My Curiosity To See The Melancholy Spectacle Of The Executions Was So Strong That I Could Not Resist It, Although I Was Sensible That I Would Suffer Much From It.... I Got Upon A Scaffold Near The Fatal Tree So That I Could Clearly See All The Dismal Scene.... I Was Most Terribly Shocked, And Thrown Into A Very Deep Melancholy.

-James Boswell

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My Curiosity To See

James Boswell

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My Curiosity To See The Melancholy Spectacle Of The Executions Was So Strong That I Could Not Resist It, Although I Was Sensible That I Would Suffer Much From It.... I Got Upon A Scaffold Near The Fatal Tree So That I Could Clearly See All The Dismal Scene.... I Was Most Terribly Shocked, And Thrown Into A Very Deep Melancholy.

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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.

Many Infidels Have Maintained That Ignorance Is The Mother Of Devotion.

Friendship, "the Wine Of Life," Should, Like A Well-stocked Cellar, Be Continually Renewed.

I Suppose No Person Ever Enjoyed With More Relish The Infusion Of That Fragrant Leaf Than Johnson.

But What Can A Man See Of A Library Being One Day In It?

We Had Some Port, And Drank Damnation To The Play And Eternal Remorse To The Author.

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.

My Definition Of Man Is, A Cooking Animal. The Beasts Have Memory, Judgement, And All The Faculties And Passions Of Our Mind, In A Certain Degree; But No Beast Is A Cook....man Alone Can Dress A Good Dish; And Every Man Whatever Is More Or Less A Cook, In Seasoning What He Himself Eats.

We Often Observe In Lawyers, Who As Quicquid Agunt Homines Is The Matter Of Law Suits, Are Sometimes Obliged To Pick Up A Temporary Knowledge Of An Art Or Science, Of Which They Understood Nothing Till Their Brief Was Delivered, And Appear To Be Much Masters Of It.

That Favorite Subject, Myself.

Favorite Subject

In Every Picture There Should Be Shade As Well As Light.

After I Went To Bed I Had A Curious Fancy As To Dreams. In Sleep The Doors Of The Mind Are Shut, And Thoughts Come Jumping In At The Windows. They Tumble Headlong, And Therefore Are So Disorderly And Strange. Sometimes They Are Stout And Light On Their Feet, And Then They Are Rational Dreams.

A Sceptick Therefore, Who Because He Finds That Truths Are Not Universally Received, Doubts Of Their Existence, Is Just As Foolish As A Man Who Should Try Large Shoes Upon Little Feet, And Little Shoes Upon Large Feet, And Finding That They Did Not Fit.

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.

For My Own Part I Think No Innocent Species Of Wit Or Pleasantry Should Be Suppressed: And That A Good Pun May Be Admitted Among The Smaller Excellencies Of Lively Conversation.

Boswell: But, Sir Is It Not Somewhat Singular That You Should Happen To Have Cocker's Arithmetic About You On Your Journey? Dr. Johnson: Why, Sir If You Are To Have But One Book With You Upon A Journey, Let It Be A Book Of Science. When You Read Through A Book Of Entertainment, You Know It, And It Can Do No More For You; But A Book Of Science Is Inexhaustible.

In Every Place, Where There Is Any Thing Worthy Of Observation, There Should Be A Short Printed Directory For Strangers.

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Writing A Book I Have Found To Be Like Building A House. A Man Forms A Plan, And Collects Materials.

When We Know Exactly All A Man's Views And How He Comes To Speak And Act So And So, We Lose Any Respect For Him, Though We May Love And Admire Him.

My Mind Was, As It Were, Strongly Impregnated With The Johnsonian Ether.

Nay, Sir, It Was Not The Wine That Made Your Head Ache, But The Sense That I Put Into It' 'what, Sir! Will Sense Make The Head Ache?' 'yes, Sir, (with A Smile,) When It Is Not Used To It.

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.

After We Came Out Of The Church, We Stood Talking For Some Time Together Of Bishop Berkeley's Ingenious Sophistry To Prove The Non-existence Of Matter, And That Every Thing In The Universe Is Merely Ideal. I Observed, That Though We Are Satisfied His Doctrine Is Not True, It Is Impossible To Refute It. I Never Shall Forget The Alacrity With Which Johnson Answered, Striking His Foot With Mighty Force Against A Large Stone, Till He Rebounded From It, "i Refute It Thus."

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To Abolish A Status, Which In All Ages God Has Sanctioned, And Man Has Continued, Would Not Only Be Robbery To An Innumerable Class Of Our Fellow-subjects; But It Would Be Extreme Cruelty To The African Savages, A Portion Of Whom It Saves From Massacre, Or Intolerable Bondage In Their Own Country, And Introduces Into A Much Happier State Of Life; Especially Now When Their Passage To The West-indies And Their Treatment There Is Humanely Regulated.

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.

My Father Had Declared A Predilection For Heirs General, That Is, Males And Females Indiscriminately.... I, On The Other Hand, Had A Zealous Partiality For Heirs Male, However Remote.

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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?

My Curiosity To See The Melancholy Spectacle Of The Executions Was So Strong That I Could Not Resist It, Although I Was Sensible That I Would Suffer Much From It.... I Got Upon A Scaffold Near The Fatal Tree So That I Could Clearly See All The Dismal Scene.... I Was Most Terribly Shocked, And Thrown Into A Very Deep Melancholy.

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There Is Indeed A Strange Prejudice Against Quotation.

But The Question Is, Whether The Animals Who Endure Such Sufferings Of Various Kinds For The Service And Entertainment Of Man, Would Accept Existence Upon The Terms On Which They Have It.

The Pleasure Of Gratifying Whim Is Very Great. It Is Known Only By Those Who Are Whimsical.

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All Censure Of A Man's Self Is Oblique Praise.

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.

I Fancy Mankind May Come, In Time, To Write All Aphoristically.

One Must Be Strict Even In Little Things.

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