
Alternating Current (1967)
Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 12, Writing About Yourself: The Memoir, p. 99.
Alternating Current (1967)
“The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented.”
Fragment No. 114
Blüthenstaub (1798)
Context: The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!
“Art imitates Nature, and Necessity is the Mother of Invention.”
Northern Memoirs, written in 1658 and published in 1694 along with another work by Franck, The Contemplative and Practical Angler
“The real truths are those that can be invented.”
Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)
“To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.”
Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio.
Letter to Clara Maffei, October 20, 1876, cited from James P. Cassaro (ed.) Music, Libraries and the Academy (Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2007) p. 218; translation from the same source.
“All the arts come from God and are to be respected as divine inventions”
“Since you may never discover the truth, invent it.”
NOW WHAT? The Young Person's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career, Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 9780743266307
“Sheer necessity,—the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.”
Act I, sc. ii.
The Critic (1779)