Source: Practical Pictorial Photography, 1898, Tone and atmoshphere, p. 40
“The domestic life of most classes is relatively shabby, as compared with the éclat of that overt portion of their life that is carried on before the eyes of observers.”
Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 112
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Thorstein Veblen 41
American academic 1857–1929Related quotes
“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”
General sources
Variant: It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. This is in fact true. It's called living.
Source: The Last Continent
Attributed to Einstein in Treasury of the Christian Faith https://books.google.com/books?id=Ll4wAAAAYAAJ&q=%22shabby+clothes%22+%22shoddy+furniture%22&dq=%22shabby+clothes%22+%22shoddy+furniture%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiS04TynqDLAhUO8GMKHUYICMkQ6AEINTAA (1949), and subsequently repeated in other books. No original source where Einstein supposedly said this has been located, and it is absent from authoritative sources such as Calaprice, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein.
Disputed
“Our portion of life is the whole thing for us.”
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 38
Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 143
This popular quote seems to be a paraphrase of an exchange in The Last Continent:
Is it true that your life passes before your eyes before you die?'
YES.
'Ghastly thought, really.' Rincewind shuddered. 'Oh, gods, I've just had another one. Suppose I am just about to die and this is my whole life passing in front of my eyes?'
I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED 'LIVING'.
Misc