
“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
Crime and Punishment (1866)
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
Crime and Punishment (1866)
“Nothing is harder than to accept oneself.”
I'm not Stiller (1955)
Source: 1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 119
“There is always someone out there getting better than you by training harder than you.”
“Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.”
"Of Time, and Gully Foyle", Foreword to a 1999 edition of The Stars My Destination (1956)
Context: You can tell when a Hollywood historical film was made by looking at the eye makeup of their leading ladies, and you can tell the date of an old science fiction novel by every word on the page. Nothing dates harder and faster and more strangely than the future.
Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading