
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Variant: If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.
Translation of lines quoted by Coke. Compare: "Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven; Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven" - Sir William Jones.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Variant: If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax.
“To rise at six, to sleep at ten,
To sup at ten, to dine at six,
Make a man live for ten times ten.”
Lever à six, coucher à dix,
Dîner à dix, souper à six,
Font vivre l'homme dix fois dix.
Inscription in Hugo's dining room, quoted in Gustave Larroumet, La maison de Victor Hugo: Impressions de Guernesey (1895), Chapter III
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 473.
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
“That's conversation. I charge six bucks an hour for that.”
"A Young Girl's Primer" (1966)
Quoted in Helen Herimbi, "Comedy shows are laughing off the recession," http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=356&fArticleId=4870371 Tonight (2009-03-03)
“My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression.”
Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)