“When we go up to the shelves in the reading-room of the British Museum, how like it is to wasps flying up and down an apricot tree that is trained against a wall, or cattle coming down to drink at a pool!”
Mental and Physical Pabulum
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter
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Samuel Butler 232
novelist 1835–1902Related quotes

“Up down / on summer's lake / the flying ant / finds a wall in the air”

And Thou Too (1888)
Context: Ah, not to a blaze of light I go,
Nor shouts of a triumph train;
I go down to kiss the dregs of woe,
And drink up the Cup of Pain. And whether a scaffold or crucifix waits
'Neath the light of my silver star,
I know and I care not: I only know
I shall pause not though it be far.

On his final record-breaking leap in the long-jump competition.
Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

Speech given at Kemaman, Terengganu, on 14 January 2014, cf Palatino M, <i>The Diplomat</i>; "Malaysia's Kangkung Meme" http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/malaysias-kangkung-meme/.

Sunday at Hampstead (1863–65), part X

“Things go up and down. If you can survive the down, it will come back. ”