Eryximachus, p. 52
L'Âme et la danse (1921)
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Context: How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving....
“And here I was thinking you were a bit slow, what with so much asking and not knowing anything.”
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.”
"What Is English Literature?" (1935)
“When it comes to people -- don't write about who you know; but what you know of human nature.”
Source: The Carrie Diaries
The Roman Empire
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIII - Unprofessional Sermons
“So far as consciousness goes, one does one's thinking before one knows what he is to think about.”
Source: A History of Experimental Psychology, 1929, p. 397: Cited in: Jay M. Jackson (2013) Social Psychology, Past and Present: An Integrative Orientation, p. 28
“My business is to paint what I see, not what I know is there.”
Turner, quoted in: Donald B. MacCulloch (1927) The Wondrous Isle of Staffa, p. 160
Alternative quote:
My job is to paint what I see, not what I know
As quoted in: George Seferis (1999) A Poet's Journal: Days of 1945-1951. p. 105
undated quotes
