Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Vice and Virtue, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Vice and Virtue, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 5 “Letter From an Unknown Hero” (p. 120)
“Man, whence is he? / Too bad to be the work of a god, too good for the work of chance.”
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 61; usually attributed to Doris Lessing in the form: "Man — who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!"
Misattributed
“Man, whence is he?
Too bad to be the work of a god, too good for the work of chance.”
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic
Der Mensch, wo ist er her?
Zu schlecht für einen Gott, zu gut fürs Ungefähr.
As quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 61
Variant: Man — who is he? Too bad to be the work of God; Too good for the work of chance!
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
45 Antigonus I
Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders
Don Soderquist (1934–2016)
Don Soderquist “ Live Learn Lead to Make a Difference https://books.google.com/books?id=s0q7mZf9oDkC&lpg=pg=PP1&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2006 p. 58. <br class="br">On Doing Things Right
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
Imperfection http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21399/Imperfection <br class="br">From the poems written in English
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) British historian
The Origins Of History (1981)
“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”
Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds
184
Stray Birds (1916)
“They are too green", he said, "and only good for fools.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
The Fox and the Grapes, fable 11; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Fables (1668–1679)