I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.1
ATTRIBUTION:
Life of Johnson (Boswell).2Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1783.
Note 1. I have not loved the world, nor the world me.—Lord Byron: Childe Harold, canto iii. stanza 113. [back]
Note 2. From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.
Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell’s intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell’s!—Thomas Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. [back]
