“How melancholy a thing is success.”
First Footsteps in East Africa (1856)
Context: How melancholy a thing is success. Whilst failure inspirits a man, attainment reads the sad prosy lesson that all our glories "Are shadows, not substantial things." Truly said the sayer, "disappointment is the salt of life" a salutary bitter which strengthens the mind for fresh exertion, and gives a double value to the prize.
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Richard Francis Burton78
British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, … 1821–1890Related quotes
“So many of the loveliest things in England are melancholy.”
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
“The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) French social commentator and political thinker
Le succès de la plupart des choses dépend de savoir combien il faut de temps pour réussir.
Pensées Diverses
Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian
Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
“The melancholy thing in our public life is the insane desire to get higher.”
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)
Letter "to a leading editor" (10 April 1875), as quoted in The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes (1876) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22037 edited by James Quay Howard, ch. X, p. 144
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American writer
Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume II, p. 52.
Bill Murray (1950) American actor and comedian
Interview with Thomas Chau http://www.cinecon.com/news.php?id=0412221 <br class="br">Context: Melancholic and lovable is the trick, right? You've got to be able to show that you have these feelings. In the game of life, you get these feelings and how you deal with those feelings. What you do when you are trying to deal with a melancholy. A melancholy can be sweet. It's not a mean thing, but it's something that happens in life — like autumn.
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor
Vol. II, bk. 5, ch. 4.
Recollections (1917)
