54. Eating
"Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not
to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very
studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who
does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else."
Boswell: Life
Link
55. Eating; Experience
"I, Madam, who live at a variety of good tables, am a much better
judge of cookery, than any person who has a very tolerable cook,
but lives much at home; for his palate is gradually adapted to
the taste of his cook: whereas, Madam, in trying by a wider
range, I can more exquisitely judge."
Boswell: Life
Link
56. Eating
"This was a good dinner enough, to be sure: but it was not a
dinner to ask a man to."
Boswell: Life
Link
148. Eating; Poverty
I was saying to a friend one day, that I did not like goose; one
smells it so while it is roasting, said I: "But you, Madam
(replies the Doctor), have been at all times a fortunate woman,
having always had your hunger forestalled by indulgence, that you
never experienced the delight of smelling your dinner
beforehand." Which pleasure, answered I pertly, is to be enjoyed
in perfection by such as have the happiness to pass through
Porridge-Island* of a morning. "Come, come (says he gravely),
let's have no sneering at what is serious to so many: hundreds
of your fellow creatures, dear Lady, turn another way, that they
may not be tempted by the luxuries of Porridge-Island to wish for
gratifications they are not able to obtain: you are certainly
not better than all of them; give God thanks that you are
happier."
*Porridge-Island is a mean street in London, filled with
cook-shops for the convenience of the poorer inhabitants; the
real name of it I know not, but suspect that it is generally
known by, to have been originally a term of derision.
[Piozzi]
Piozzi: Anecdotes
Link
158. Eating
"A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of any thing than he
does of his dinner; and if he cannot get that well dressed, he
should be suspected of inaccuracy in other things."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
Link
159. Eating
I [Piozzi] asked him, if he ever huffed his wife about his
dinner? "So often (replied he), that at last she called to me,
and said, Nay, hold Mr. Johnson, and do not make a farce of
thanking God for a dinner which in a few moments you will protest
not eatable."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
Link
295. Eating
At the inn where we stopped he was exceedingly dissatisfied with
some roast mutton we had for dinner. ... He scolded the waiter,
saying, "It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed,
ill-kept, and ill-drest."
Boswell: Life
Link
351. Cucumbers; Eating
"It has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a
cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and
vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."
Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Link
367. Eating; Manners; Scotland
"At the tables where a stranger is received, neither plenty nor
delicacy is wanting. ... Every kind of flesh is undoubtedly
excelled by the variety and emulation of English markets; but
that which is not best may be yet very far from bad, and he that
shall complain of his fare in the Hebrides, has improved his
delicacy more than his manhood."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Link
368. Eating; Scotland
"If an epicure could remove by a wish, in quest of sensual
gratifications, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in
Scotland."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Link
369. Culture; Custom; Eating
"It is not very easy to fix the principles upon which mankind
have agreed to eat some animals, and reject others; and as the
principle is not evident, it is not uniform. That which is
selected as delicate in one country, is by its neighbours
abhorred as loathsome."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
Link
1,399. Eating; Health; Pleasure
"There is no pleasure which men of every age and sect have more
generally agreed to mention with contempt than the gratifications
of the palate, an entertainment so far removed from intellectual
happiness that scarcely the most shameless of the sensual herd
have dared to defend it: yet even to this, the lowest of our
delights, to this, though neither quick nor lasting, is health
with all its activity and sprightliness daily sacrificed; and for
this are half the miseries endured which urge impatience to call
on death."
Johnson: Rambler #178 (November 30, 1751)
Link
1,445. Eating
"For my part, now, I consider supper as a turnpike through which
one must pass, in order to get to bed."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
Link
1,713. Eating
"We could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod
of Cooks."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
Link
1,735. Eating
"A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner
upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek."
Sir John Hawkins: Life of Samuel
Johnson
Link
