Samuel johnson quotes biography examples

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136. Biography
On biography: "It is rarely well executed. They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination; and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him. The chaplain of a late bishop, whom I was to assist in writing some memoirs of his Lordship, could tell me scarcely any thing."
Boswell: Life
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236.

Biography
I said, in writing a life, a man's peculiarities should be mentioned, because they mark his character. Johnson: "Sir, there is no doubt as to peculiarities: the question is, whether a man's vices should be mentioned; for instance, whether it should be mentioned that Addison and Parnell drank too freely: for people will probably more easily indulge in drinking from knowing this; so that more ill may be done by example than good by telling the whole truth." Here was an instance of his varying from himself in talk; for when Lord Hailes and he sat one m The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page: Quotes on Learning VEBY