“He has singed the beard of the king of Spain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
The Dutch Picture, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.”
G 4
Variant translations:
It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.
It is virtually impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd, without singeing someone's beard
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)
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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg137
German scientist, satirist 1742–1799Related quotes
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