 | John Morrow - 2006 - 342 páginas
...the back handed compliment of attributing the genius of his Life to his failings as a human being — 'If he had not been a great fool, he would never have been a great writer' - Carlyle commended Boswell for having resisted the temptation (which must have been very strong in... | |
 | 530 páginas
...of our author. For instance, in the review of Boswell's Life of Johnson, he says, that if Boswell ' had not been a great fool, he would never 'have been a great writer.' This assertion he supports by such remarks as these : ' Without all the qualities which made him the... | |
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But these men attained literary eminence in spite of their weaknesses. Boswell attained it by reason of his weaknesses. If he had not been a great fool, he would never have been a great writer. 
