The Conduct of Life, Behaviour
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860), Behavior
“Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.”
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose. (Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having someone who can answer, from time to time, that it is a fine thing.) —Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Dissertations chrétiennes et morales (1665), XVIII: "Les plaisirs de la vie retirée".
Misattributed
“There’s a fine line between support and stalking and let’s all stay on the right side of that.”
“It’s certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.”
St. 3
In The Seven Woods (1904), Adam's Curse http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1431/
Context: It’s certain there is no fine thing
Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.
There have been lovers who thought love should be
So much compounded of high courtesy
That they would sigh and quote with learned looks
Precedents out of beautiful old books;
Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.
“Everything is going to be fine in the end.
If it's not fine it's not the end.”
“Fine feathers, they say, make fine birds.”
The Padlock (1768).
