tavernchairisthethroneofhumanfelicity。’
Personalwordsareoftenuponhislips，suchas’love’and’hate，’
andvastisthenumber，range，andvarietyofpeoplewhoatonetimeoranotherhadbeeninsomedegreepersonallyrelatedwithhim，fromBetFlintandhisblackservantFrancis，totheadoredDuchessofDevonshireandtheKinghimself。Tonoonewhopassedawordwithhimwashepersonallyindifferent。Evenfoolsreceivedhispersonalattention。Saidone：’ButIdon’tunderstandyou，Sir。’’Sir，Ihavefoundyouanargument。Iamnotobligedtofindyouanunderstanding。’’Sir，youareirascible，’saidBoswell；’youhavenopatiencewithfollyorabsurdity。’
ButitisinJohnson’scapacityforfriendshipthathisgreatnessisspeciallyrevealed。’Keepyourfriendshipsingoodrepair。’Astheoldfriendsdisappeared，newonescametohim。ForJohnsonseemsnevertohavesoughtoutfriends。Hewasnotacommon’mixer。’Hestoopedtonodevicesforthesakeofpopularity。Hepoursonlyscornuponthelackofmindandconvictionwhichisnecessarytohimwhoiseverybody’sfriend。
Hisfriendshipsincludedallclassesandallages。Hewasagreatfavoritewithchildren，andknewhowtomeetthem，fromlittlefour-months-oldVeronicaBoswelltohisgodchildJaneLangton。