“How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”
Source: Pride and Prejudice
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Jane Austen 477
English novelist 1775–1817Related quotes
“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than of war.”
A misquotation http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2009-August/092648.html of:
Πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστὶ καὶ ὕπνου καὶ φιλότητος
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο,
τῶν πέρ τις καὶ μᾶλλον ἐέλδεται ἐξ ἔρον εἷναι
ἢ πολέμου· Τρῶες δὲ μάχης ἀκόρητοι ἔασιν.
Men get
Their fill of all things, of sleep and love, sweet song
And flawless dancing, and most men like these things
Much better than war. Only Trojans are always
Thirsty for blood!
Iliad, XIII, 636–639 (tr. Ennis Rees)
The misquotation implies that an overweening love of war was the norm, whereas the real quote decries the Trojans as inhumane for keeping the war going.
Misattributed
“Fear arises sooner than anything else.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
“Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
"Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Context: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
“No one knows as well as I how much nonsense is printed in books.”
Source: Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Source: La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind) (2001)
“Turning to God with the deep of the heart is much better than tiring the organs.”
[Baqir Sharīf al-Qurashi, The life of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad, From the Reality of Faith, 2005]
Ad-Durr an-Nadhīm, p.223.
