William Darling (politician): Doing

William Darling (politician) was Scottish politician. Explore interesting quotes on doing.

William Darling (politician): 20 quotes 0 likes

“A cat is the ideal literary companion. A wife, I am sure, cannot compare except to her disadvantage. A dog is out of the question. It may do at a butcher's – it would be out of place in a bookseller's. A cat for a bookseller is a different creature temperamentally from the same animal at a fishmonger's or a baker's. In these shops the cat is a useful animal – I suppose it is employed to eat fish entrails or to keep down rats and mice – but in my shop its function is that of a familiar. It is at once decorative – contemplative – philosophical, and it begets in me great calm and contentment.”

William Darling (politician)

Source: The Bankrupt Bookseller (1947), p. 48

Dogs , Cats , Question , Fish

“A fair exchange is so difficult to understand. How much do these inscrutable customers of mine desire my books? What would be a fair exchange? There are no balances in which such bargains can be weighed, for I don't think I ever parted with any book from all my stock but with a feeling of regret – without a sense of loss – even although I knew that I might replace the dear departed with another by return of post from the publishers.”

William Darling (politician)

Source: The Bankrupt Bookseller (1947), pp. 34–35

Books , Feeling , Understanding , Thinking

“Anarchism being immediately impracticable, let us have a government which governs as little as possible. Lord Melbourne's attitude of mind should be commended for imitation to all Prime Ministers. On being pressed by less wise members of his Cabinet to further certain legislation, he replied, "Must we really do something – why not let well alone?"”

William Darling (politician)

Source: The Bankrupt Bookseller (1947), pp. 119–20