“Starting in a hollowed log of wood — some thousand miles up a river, with an infinitesimal prospect of returning! I ask myself 'Why?' and the only echo is 'damned fool!… the Devil drives'.”

—  Richard Francis Burton

Burton to Lord Houghton as quoted in The Devil Drives: A life of Sir Richard Burton (1984) by Fawn Brodie.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Starting in a hollowed log of wood — some thousand miles up a river, with an infinitesimal prospect of returning! I ask…" by Richard Francis Burton?
Richard Francis Burton photo
Richard Francis Burton 78
British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, … 1821–1890

Related quotes

Richard Francis Burton photo

“Starting in a hollowed log of wood — some thousand miles up a river, with an infinitesimal prospect of returning! I ask myself 'Why?”

Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, lin…

and the only echo is 'damned fool!... the Devil drives'.
Burton to Lord Houghton as quoted in The Devil Drives: A life of Sir Richard Burton (1984) by Fawn Brodie.

Samuel Goldwyn photo

“The next time I send a damn fool for something, I go myself.”

Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) American film producer (1879-1974).

Reported in Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It (1990), p. 41-42.
Misattributed

Holly Black photo

“Down a path worn into the woods, past a stream and a hollowed-out log full of pill bugs and termites, was a glass coffin. It rested right on the ground, and in it slept a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives.”

Holly Black book The Darkest Part of the Forest

Source: The Darkest Part of the Forest

“Now it stands to reason, mister, any damn fool stares into the sun long enough, he'll end up seeing exactly what some other damn fool tells him he's going to see.”

John D. MacDonald (1916–1986) writer from the United States

Non-series books, A Flash of Green

Abby Sunderland photo

“I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.”

Abby Sunderland (1993) Camera Assistant, Inspirational Speaker and Sailor

Source: Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas (2011), p. 196

Charles Bukowski photo

“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”

Charles Bukowski book Post Office

Source: Post Office (1971)

Terence V. Powderly photo

“It is as well to be born in the first chapter as elsewhere, and though I have only secondary evidence as to the fact, believe it happened as related to me afterwards by my mother, who said the doctor found me in an old hollow log and, as our house happened to be nearest to the log in question, he wrapped me up in his cloak, carried me to the house and left me with mother.”

Terence V. Powderly (1849–1924) American mayor

[Powderly, Terence, 'The Path I Trod: The Autobiography of Terence V. Powderly, 1940, Columbia University Press, 9781163178164, https://archive.org/stream/pathitrodautobio00powdrich, 8]

Victor Hugo photo

“A cannonball travels only two thousand miles an hour; light travels two hundred thousand miles a second. Such is the superiority of Jesus Christ over Napoleon.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
Alfred Austin photo

“The Devil is an echo
Of search unsatisfied.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892), Fortunatus in Act I, sc. iii; p. 35.

Dave Sim photo

“If something knocks you five degrees out of whack, the journey of a thousand miles that begins with a single step ends up thousands of miles away from its intended destination.”

Dave Sim (1956) Canadian cartoonist, creator of Cerebus

http://cerebusfangirl.com/artists/0805talk.php

Related topics