Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.

I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.

For my own part I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed: and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.

If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.

The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.

In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.

My curiosity to see the melancholy spectacle of the executions was so strong that I could not resist it, although I was sensible that I would suffer much from it.... I got upon a scaffold near the fatal tree so that I could clearly see all the dismal scene.... I was most terribly shocked, and thrown into a very deep melancholy.