“To Anthony life was a struggle against death, that waited at every corner. It was as a concession to his hypochondriacal imagination that he formed the habit of reading in bed — it soothed him. He read until he was tired and often fell asleep with the lights still on.”

—  F. Scott Fitzgerald

Quoted, The Beautiful and Damned (1922)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To Anthony life was a struggle against death, that waited at every corner. It was as a concession to his hypochondriaca…" by F. Scott Fitzgerald?
F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
F. Scott Fitzgerald 411
American novelist and screenwriter 1896–1940

Related quotes

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“He read at wine, he read in bed, He read aloud, had he the breath, His every thought was with the dead, And so he read himself to death.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

"Tarquin of Cheapside"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)

John Green photo

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep; Slowly, and then all at once.”

John Green book The Fault in Our Stars

Hazel Grace Lancaster, p. 125
Compare Ernest Hemingway, speaking about the process of going bankrupt: "'Gradually and then suddenly.'"
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)

Adlai Stevenson photo

“Man is a strange animal. He generally cannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

The 1957 Ford Almanac has the quote "It's too late to read the handwriting on the wall when your back's up against it", attributed to "Anon." The quote appeared in several variations afterwards, for instance in an essay by Meredith Thring in Nature Magazine in 1965. It began to be attributed without context to Stevenson in the 1970s. According to "Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy" by Porter McKeever (p. 566), Stevenson made this remark "with increasing frequency in the final months of his life"; but Stevenson died in 1965 and this book does not give a precise reference. Absent better attestation, Stevenson either used the quote from elsewhere or the association with Stevenson is a mistake.
Misattributed

Athanasius of Alexandria photo

“He had given such heed to what was read that none of the things that were written fell from him to the ground, but he remembered all, and afterwards his memory served him for books.”

Athanasius of Alexandria (295–373) Patriarch of Alexandria

§ 3
Life of Anthony of Egypt

Maya Angelou photo

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
Georg Brandes photo

“Nietzsche says that as soon as he had read a single page of Schopenhauer, he knew he would read every page of him and pay heed to every word, even to the errors he might find. Every intellectual aspirant will be able to name men whom he has read in this way.”

Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar

Source: An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889), p. 10

Wu Jingzi photo

“Fan Chin feasted his eyes on this announcement; and, after reading it through once to himself, read it once more aloud. Clapping his hands, he laughed and exclaimed, "Ha! Good! I have passed." Then, stepping back, he fell down in a dead faint. His mother hastily poured some boiled water between his lips, whereupon he recovered consciousness and struggled to his feet. Clapping his hands again, he let out a peal of laughter and shouted, "Aha! I've passed! I've passed!" Laughing wildly he ran outside, giving the heralds and the neighbours the fright of their lives. Not far from the front door he slipped and fell into a pond. When he clambered out, his hair was dishevelled, his hands muddied and his whole body dripping with slime. But nobody could stop him. Still clapping his hands and laughing, he headed straight for the market.”

Wu Jingzi book The Scholars

The Scholars (c. 1750), Chapter 3 http://ctext.org/text.pl?node=566382&if=en&remap=gb (trans. Gladys Yang)

John Aubrey photo

“He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more then his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men, he should have knowne no more than other men.”

John Aubrey book Brief Lives

"Thomas Hobbes"
Brief Lives

Arthur Scargill photo

“My father still reads the dictionary every day. He says your life depends on your power to master words.”

Arthur Scargill (1938) British trade unionist
Emma Donoghue photo

“For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.”

Emma Donoghue (1969) Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Source: Slammerkin

Related topics