Frasi di James Boswell

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck , è stato uno scrittore, giurista e aforista scozzese.

✵ 29. Ottobre 1740 – 19. Maggio 1795
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James Boswell Frasi e Citazioni

“VOLTAIRE. «Shakespeare ha spesso due buoni versi, mai sei. Un pazzo, perdio, un buffone alla Fiera di San Bartolomeo. Mai un lavoro veramente suo, tutte vecchie storie». Scacchi: «Perderò, perdio, per tutti i santi del Paradiso. Ah, qui cavalco su un montone nero come la puttana che sono… Falstaff dagli spagnoli». BOSWELL. «Vi dirò perché noi ammiriamo Shakespeare». VOLTAIRE. «Perché non avete gusto». BOSWELL. «Ma signore…». VOLTAIRE. «Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos… Tutta l'Europa è contro di voi. Perciò avete torto». BOSWELL. «Ma ciò dipende dal fatto che abbiamo grande immaginazione». VOLTAIRE. «La più selvaggia… Pope guida un calesse tirato da due beipuledri eleganti, ma Dryden viaggia su un tiro a sei, coi postiglioni e tutto». Ha ripetuto con esattezza qualche passo di Dryden. BOSWELL. «Che cos'è la memoria? Dove risiedono tutte le nostre idee?». VOLTAIRE. «Come dice Thomson: dove dormono i venti quando l'aria è calma? Thomson era un grande pittore. Milton, molte bellezze e molti difetti, come non c'è nulla di perfetto in questo dannato mondo. I suoi imitatori sono incomprensibili. Ma quando lui scrive bene è chiarissimo». BOSWELL. «Che cosa pensate del nostro teatro?». VOLTAIRE. «Molto spirito, molto intreccio, e molti bordelli». BOSWELL. «Che cosa pensate di Fingal?». VOLTAIRE. «Sembra un salmo di David. Ma vi sono dei nobili passaggi. In tutt'e due. L'Omero di Scozia.»”

Origine: Visita a Rousseau e a Voltaire, p. 100-101

James Boswell: Frasi in inglese

“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.”

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

(19 September 1777)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)
Variante: We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.”

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

October 26, 1769, p. 174
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Origine: The Life of Samuel 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.”

On an occasion of mocking a pair of Highland officers, circa 1672, as attributed by Ruaridh Nicoll, "As a Scot, I hate this idea of a neutered nation" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/apr/22/scotland.devolution, The Observer, 22 April 2007

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

Quoting John Wilmot, earl of Rochester's poem "To Lord Buckhurst", (18 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

“My lord and Dr Johnson disputed a little, whether the savage or the London shopkeeper had the best existence; his lordship, as usual, preferring the savage.”

The lord was James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, (21 August 1773)
See similar debate in Angel.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

“Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise.”

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

25 April 1778
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

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

Quoting Samuel Johnson (16 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

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

Quoting Samuel Johnson (19 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

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

Quoting Samuel Johnson (18 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

“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.”

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

Quoting William Gerard Hamilton (1784)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

“Boswell is pleasant and gay,
For frolic by nature designed;
He heedlessly rattles away
When company is to his mind.”

In a poem about himself, in "Biographic Sketches" in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal Vol. IV (1836). p. 341

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

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

Comment on Samuel Johnson's treatment of Thomas Sheridan (16 October 1769)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

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

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

Spoken by Samuel Foote about a "law-Lord" (1783)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

“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.”

James Boswell libro The Life of Samuel Johnson

Quoting Edwards, an old schoolmate of Johnson's (17 April 1778)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

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

19 August 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

“Such groundless fears will arise in the mind, before it has resumed its vigour after sleep!”

1 September 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)

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