Plutarch book Parallel Lives
Of Hearing, 6
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Source: Parallel Lives
“To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance.”
Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Context: To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance. In giving expression to the last stage of an idea, — an idea which permeates all minds, which to-morrow will be proclaimed by another if I fail to announce it to-day, — I can claim no merit save that of priority of utterance. Do we eulogize the man who first perceives the dawn?
Yes: all men believe and repeat that equality of conditions is identical with equality of rights; that property and robbery are synonymous terms; that every social advantage accorded, or rather usurped, in the name of superior talent or service, is iniquity and extortion. All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.
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Pierre Joseph Proudhon40
French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and so… 1809–1865Related quotes
Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806) free African American scientist, surveyor, almanac author and farmer
This appeared in Banneker's Almanac in 1794, and is commonly attributed to him, but originates earlier in "Reflections on different Subjects of Morality, by Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland, Duke of Lorrain and Bar" in The Universal Magazine (1765), p. 119
Misattributed
Stanisław Leszczyński (1677–1766) king of Poland
"Reflections on different Subjects of Morality, in The Universal Magazine (1765), p. 119.
Jules Verne book From the Earth to the Moon
Rien ne saurait étonner un Américain. On a souvent répété que le mot "impossible" n’était pas français; on s’est évidemment trompé de dictionnaire. En Amérique, tout est facile, tout est simple, et quant aux difficultés mécaniques, elles sont mortes avant d’être nées. Entre le projet Barbicane et sa réalisation, pas un véritable Yankee ne se fût permis d’entrevoir l’apparence d’une difficulté. Chose dite, chose faite.
Source: From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Ch. III: Effect of the President's Communication
“560. All things are difficult, before they are easy.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Source: (zh-CN) 任何新生事物的成长都是要经过艰难曲折的。在社会主义事业中，要想不经过艰难曲折，不付出极大努力，总是一帆风顺，容易得到成功，这种想法，只是幻想。
Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
“It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had.”
Henry Knox (1750–1806) Continental Army and US Army general, US Secretary of War
Knox to George Washington on the difficulties of taking to Boston. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.
“Each ambition has its difficulties. In life, simple things do not exist.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) Ogni ambizione ha le sue difficoltà. Nella vita le cose semplici non esistono.
Source: prevale.net