"I shall stay him no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to read this following discourse; and that if he be an honest angler, the east wind may never blow when he goes a-fishing."

"As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler."

"Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt."

"Of which, if thou be a severe, sour-complexioned man, then I here disallow thee to be a competent judge."

"I have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing."

"God has two dwellings — one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart."

"The great secretary of Nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon."

"For love is a flattering mischief, that hath denied aged and wise men a foresight of those evils that too often prove to be the children of that blind father; a passion, that carries us to commit errors with as much ease as whirlwinds move feathers, and begets in us an unwearied industry to the attainment of what we desire."

"But God, who is able to prevail, wrestled with him, as the Angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own; marked him with a blessing, a blessing of obedience to the motions of his blessed Spirit."

"Oh, the gallant fisher's life! It is the best of any; 'T is full of pleasure, void of strife, And 't is beloved by many."

"Let the blessing of St. Peter's Master be...upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare trust in his Providence, and be quiet and go a-angling."

"Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy."

"This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men."

"Thus use your frog...Put your hook through his mouth, and out at his gills;...and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming-wire of your hook; or tie the frog's leg, above the upper joint, to the armed-wire; and in so doing use him as though you loved him."

"We may say of angling as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries: "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did"; and so, if I might be judge, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling."

"No man can lose what he never had."

"I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning."

"Old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good."

"An excellent angler, and now with God."

"[...] for the Doctor observed, that no man takes upon himself small blemishes without supposing that great abilities are attributed to him; and that, in short, this affectation of candour or modesty was but another kind of indirect self-praise, and had its foundation in vanity."

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

"[...] I observed he [Samuel Johnson] poured a large quantity of it [wine] into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Everything about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there never was any moderation; many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine; but when he did eat, it was voraciously; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not temperance."

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

"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."

"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."

"His mind resembled the vast ampitheatre, the Colisæum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgement, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives them back into their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him."

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

"When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well, (said he,) we had good talk." BOSWELL: "Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons.""

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

"I regretted I was not the head of a clan; however, though not possessed of such an hereditary advantage, I would always endeavour to make my tenants follow me."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"'Sir,' said Mr Johnson, 'a lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.'"

"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."

"His portrait of Paoli in the "Tour to Corsica," though it is a miniature beside his portrait of Johnson, is perfect."

"Now, from onwards, all the robust commentators upon Boswell's character, Leslie Stephen and Carlyle for example, have interpreted his pursuit of great men as a delight in basking in reflected glory, and have treated him with smiling patronage as a comic snob."

"Biographers, translators, editors, all, in short, who employ themselves in illustrating the lives or writings of others, are peculiarly exposed to the Lues Boswelliana, or disease of admiration."

"Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second."

"Sir, you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both."

"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."

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