James Boswell
(1740 - 1795)

British biographer and diarist.

Science Quotes by James Boswell (1)

After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, 'I refute it thus.'
— James Boswell
Entry for Saturday 6th August 1763. In George Birkbeck-Hill (ed.), Boswell's Life of Johnson (1934-50), Vol. 1, 471.
See also:  |  Matter (32)  |  Philosophy (27)


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