Life and Conversations of Dr. Samuel Johnson: (founded Chiefly Upon Boswell).

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Chapman and Hall, 1874 - Literary Criticism - 441 pages

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Page 247 - Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a' subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Page 168 - Sir, don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They pay you by feeling.
Page 430 - Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuff 'd bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart ? Doct.
Page 65 - I hope it is no very cynical asperity, not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. " Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I...
Page 374 - He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close...
Page 128 - Sir, a woman's 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.
Page 181 - Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed," he was a blockhead;" and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, " What I mean by his being a blockhead is, that he was a barren rascal." BOSWELL: " Will you not allow, Sir, that he draws very natural pictures of human life ?" JOHNSON : " Why, Sir, it is of very low life.
Page 294 - Mr. Wilkes was very assiduous in helping him to some fine veal. "Pray give me leave, Sir: — It is better here — A little of the brown — Some fat, Sir — A little of the stuffing — Some gravy — Let me have the pleasure of giving you some butter — Allow me to recommend a squeeze of this orange ;— or the lemon, perhaps, may have more zest." — "Sir, Sir, I am obliged to you, Sir...
Page 341 - Sir, the life of a parson, of a conscientious clergyman, is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have Chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls. No, Sir, I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life.
Page 180 - I remember an instance : when I published the Plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that the word great should be pronounced so as to rhyme to state ; and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme to seat, and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it grait l.

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