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Quotation from The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell

“So much so, Sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of it.”

James Boswell (spoken by Samuel Johnson)

The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1769 (Aetat. 60) (Project Gutenberg #1564 (Osgood abridgment, 1917))

Portrait of James Boswell

Boswell asks whether the fear of death is natural to man; Johnson then speaks in a low voice of his own last hour.

Citation: "So much so, Sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of it." — James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1769 (Aetat. 60) (Project Gutenberg #1564 (Osgood abridgment, 1917)). (id boswell-life-of-johnson-q6)

Portrait: James Boswell of Auchinleck, Joshua Reynolds, Public domain.

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Quote card: So much so, Sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of it.