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

James Boswell Law See all quotes by James Boswell →

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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.”

“I jumped up on the benches, roared out, "Damn you, you rascals!", hissed and was in the greatest rage. I hated the English; I wished from my soul that the Union was broke and that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn.”

“He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.”

“The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse.”

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

“You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Our most provident and glorious Creator so furnished countries with severall commodities that amongst all there might be sociable conversation; and, one standing in need of the other, all might be com…"

— Peter Heylin

Literature1599–1662

#power

"Congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens and all unable to take its pres…"

— Salmon P. Chase

Law1808–1873

#life

"For a long time I was helpless before German influence, for, in Budapest and its vicinity, I lacked the means to check or thwart the joint action of the Germans and the Ministry for Home Affairs. As t…"

— Miklós Horthy

Politics1868–1957

#truth

"Average Americans have little or no influence over the making of U.S. government policy. ... Wealthy Americans wield a lot of influence. By investing money in politics, they can turn economic power in…"

— Benjamin Page

Politics1939

#politics