“And I have written three books on the soul,
Proving absurd all written hitherto,
And putting us to ignorance again.”

Cleon.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "And I have written three books on the soul, Proving absurd all written hitherto, And putting us to ignorance again." by Robert Browning?

Robert Browning179

English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era 1812–1889

Related quotes

“A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again.”

Carl Van Doren (1885–1950) American biographer

As quoted in "Bermudian" (November 1950) by James Thurber

“I regard my life as rather a failure in the only thing in which I wanted it to succeed. I have not written the books I ought to have written and I have written a lot of books I should not have written.”

Stephen Spender (1909–1995) English poet and man of letters

Response to a would be biographer in 1980, as quoted in "When Stephen met Sylvia" in The Guardian (24 April 2004) http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1201328,00.html <br class="br">Context: I am very honoured by your wanting to write a life of me. But the fact is I regard my life as rather a failure in the only thing in which I wanted it to succeed. I have not written the books I ought to have written and I have written a lot of books I should not have written. My life as lived by me has been interesting to me but to write truthfully about it would probably cause much pain to people close to me — and I always feel that the feelings of the living are more important than the monuments of the dead.

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“There is no such thing, wrote Oscar Wilde, as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. Presumably, then, Mein Kampf would have been all right had it been better written.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

Trash, Violence, and Versace: But Is It Art? http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_1_urbanities-trash.html (Winter 1998). <br class="br">City Journal (1998 - 2008)

“In a weak moment, I have written a book.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

“I have written this book to discharge a debt.”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Introduction, p.xv
Context: I have written this book to discharge a debt. For eleven years I was pastor among the working people on the West Side of New York City.... I have never ceased to feel that I owe help to the plain people who were my friends. If this book in some far-off way helps to ease the pressure that bears them down and increases the forces that bear them up, I shall meet the Master of my life with better confidence.