“[…] 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.”

— James Boswell , book The Life of Samuel Johnson

March 1781
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

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James Boswell 23

Scottish lawyer, diarist and author 1740–1795

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