Pharaoh, Book X, line 688
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Context: Fools, art is a heavy task, more heavy than gold crowns;
it's far more difficult to match firm words than armies,
they're disciplined troops, unconquered, to be placed in rhythm,
the mind's most mighty foe, and not disperse in air.
I'd give, believe me, a whole land for one good song,
for I know well that only words, that words alone,
like the high mountains, have no fear of age or death.
“There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.”
On the Educational Value of the Medical Society (1903), p. 333
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William Osler 50
Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, his… 1849–1919Related quotes
Source: Stanley Kubrick: Interviews
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Source: Art As a Social System (2000), p. 102.
“Criticism is easy, and art is difficult.”
La critique est aisée, et l'art est difficile.
Glorieux, II, 5, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 150.
The Adventurer, # 84 (August 25, 1753) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12050
Variant: Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
“For some men, the stronger their desire, the more difficult it is for them to act.”
Pt. 2, Ch. 3
Sentimental Education (1869)
Context: For some men, the stronger their desire, the more difficult it is for them to act. They are hampered by mistrust of themselves, daunted by the fear of giving offence; besides, deep feelings of affection are like respectable women; they are afraid of being found out and they go through life with downcast eyes.
Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier, Rapport des commissaires chargés par le roi de l'examen du magnétisme animal (1784), as translated in "The Chain of Reason versus the Chain of Thumbs", Bully for Brontosaurus (1991) by Stephen Jay Gould,. p. 195.
Decade unclear
Antoine Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin, Rapport des commissaires chargés par le roi de l'examen du magnétisme animal (Imprimerie royale, 1784), trans. Stephen Jay Gould, "The Chain of Reason versus the Chain of Thumbs", Bully for Brontosaurus (W.W. Norton, 1991), p. 195