“I am convinced, Yorick, continued my father, half reading and half discoursing, that there is a Northwest Passage to the intellectual world; and that the soul of man has shorter ways of going to work, in furnishing itself with knowledge and instruction, than we generally take with it.”

— Laurence Sterne , book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Book V, Ch. 42.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

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Laurence Sterne 50

Irish/English writer 1713–1768

Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985) American speculative fiction writer

Source: Short fiction, The Martian and the Moron (1949), p. 37

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope… I have loved none but you.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Variant: You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
Source: Persuasion

“Methinks God has punish'd the Avaritious as he often punishes sinners, in their own way, in the ver sin itself: the thrist of gain was their crime, that thrist continued became their punishment and ruin. As for the few who have the good fortune to remain with half of what they imagined they had (among whom is your humble servantl, I would have them sensible of their felicity, and convinced of the truth of old Hesiod's maxim, who, after half his estate was swallowed by the Directors of those days, resolv'd, that half to be more than the whole.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

In his letter to Atterbury Bishop of Rochester. Sept. 23. 1720.

“She [Elizabeth Taylor] never reads a book, at least not more than a couple of pages at a time… I have always been a heavy drinker but now as a result of this half-life we've been leading I am drinking twice as much. The upshot will be that I'll die of drink while she'll go blithely on in her half-world.”

Richard Burton (1925–1984) Welsh actor

In "Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor: The Love Letters. How drinking cocooned them from pressure of fame. Without it, they couldn't even make love."

“Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea.”

Stan Rogers (1949–1983) Folk singer

Northwest Passage (1981)

“I often read Khalil Gibran, and always find his words full of wisdom. "Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger"—those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around. If you are a writer who would secretly prefer to be a lawyer or a doctor, your written words will feed but half the hunger of your readers; if you are a teacher who would rather be a businessman, your instructions will meet but half the need for knowledge of your students; if you are a scientist who hates science, your performance will satisfy but half the needs of your mission.”

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam book Wings of Fire

Source: Wings of Fire, p. 45.

“Should novels generally be 600 pages? No, they should not. Half of writing, maybe 3/4 of writing, is editing. This seems to be a thing that has not gotten through to them. It’s my impression that you could get rid of half of most of these books. These people are not good enough to be this long, but they’re apparently also not good enough to be shorter.”

Fran Lebowitz (1950) author and public speaker from the United States

Ruminator Magazine interview http://www.ruminator.com/?p=82 with Susannah McNeely (August/September 2005).

“Oh I’m on my way I know I am,
But times there were when I thought not
Bleeding half my soul in bad company,
I thank the moon I had the strength to stop”

Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter

Sitting
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

“I was three and a half years old when my father brought home a toy fiddle," playing "with which I am very happy fancies himself a street musician… I thought not and could not be happier than go from house to house with a violin."”

David Oistrakh (1908–1974) Soviet violinist

oistrakh.ru Biography of David Oistrakh http://www.oistrakh.ru/en/david_oistrakh/biography/.

“I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body...because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

From an interview with poet and critic Louise Chandler Moulton, 1883.
Source: [Alberghene, Janice, Clark, Beverly, Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays, 2013, 1999, 9781138798977, Routledge]

“I am convinced, Yorick, continued my father, half reading and half discoursing, that there is a Northwest Passage to the intellectual world; and that the soul of man has shorter ways of going to work, in furnishing itself with knowledge and instruction, than we generally take with it.”

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Laurence Sterne 50

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