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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

4076 Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:4076
AUTHOR:Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
QUOTATION:I remember a passage in Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield,” which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: “I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.”… There was another fine passage too which he struck out: “When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false.”
ATTRIBUTION:Life of Johnson (Boswell). 1 Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779.
 
Note 1.
From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.

Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell’s intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell’s!Thomas Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. [back]