Society and the World

Sir, the insolence of wealth will creep out.

So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

BOSWELL : Sir, what is poetry?

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Fleet-street has a very animated appearance; but I think the full tide of human existence is at Charing-Cross.

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

I refute it thus.

Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let us count our spoons.

BOSWELL : I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it …

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.

They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.