"What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others."

James Boswell Law See all quotes by James Boswell →

React to this quote

More by James Boswell

“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

"Justice does not require that men must stand idly by while others destroy the basis of their existence."

— John Rawls

Philosophy1921–2002

#justice

"The progress of knowledge is very irregular, somewhat resembling the movements of an army, of which some battalions are in vigorous health, while others are sickly or overburdened with baggage. The ex…"

— Robert Chambers (publisher

#knowledge

"Just look at the internal repression inside the United States, the Patriot Act, which is a repressive law against U.S. citizens. They have put in jail a group of journalists for not revealing their so…"

— Hugo Chávez

Politics1976–2013

#justice

"Each of the various specialists remains too closely concentrated upon his single specialism, too little awake to those of the others. Each sees clearly and seizes firmly upon one petal of the six-lobe…"

— Patrick Geddes

Science1854–1932

#life