“I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.”
James Boswell (1740–1795) Scottish lawyer, diarist and author
Quoting Samuel Johnson (16 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)
August 16, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
Context: I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.
“I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.”
James Boswell (1740–1795) Scottish lawyer, diarist and author
Quoting Samuel Johnson (16 August 1773)
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1785)
“I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
April 15, 1778, p. 392
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Source: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 310
“All I can do is write my stories for mankind, and rest easy.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
Three Times Three (1936)
Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist
Interview with Ramona Koval on Radio National (4 September 1999) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s21638.htm
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Source: Klairet Levy, R. Interview to José Baroja. http://letras.mysite.com/jbar050923.html
Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States
Source: Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) American writer
"Zigzags of Treachery" (published in Black Mask, 1 March 1924)
Short Stories
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter http://eText.Lib.Virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefLett.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=136&division=div1 to Dr. Joseph Priestley (21 March 1801); published in The Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871) by Henry Stephens Randall, Vol. 2, p. 644; this seems to be the source of a misleading abbreviation: "[Christianity is] the most … perverted system that ever shone on man". <br class="br">1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801&ndash;1805) <br class="br">Context: Yours is one of the few lives precious to mankind, and for the continuance of which every thinking man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. What an effort, my dear sir, of bigotry in politics and religion have we gone through! The barbarians really flattered themselves they should be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put everything into the hands of power and priestcraft. All advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They pretended to praise and encourage education, but it was to be the education of our ancestors. We were to look backwards, not forwards, for improvement … This was the real ground of all the attacks on you. Those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy — the most sublime and benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man — endeavored to crush your well-earned & well-deserved fame.