“At what cost, now, may one attempt to write perfectly of beautiful happenings?”
"Auctorial Induction"
The Certain Hour (1916)
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James Branch Cabell 130
American author 1879–1958Related quotes
“What happens to one man may happen to all.”
Maxim 171
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

“There was a reason for the cost of those perfectly plain black dresses.”
Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker

Pg 295-296.
Against Method (1975)
Context: Naive falsificationism takes it for granted that the laws of nature are manifest an not hidden beneath disturbances of considerable magnitude. Empiricism takes it for granted that sense experience is a better mirror of the world than pure thought. Praise of argument takes it for granted that the artifices of Reason give better results than the unchecked play of our emotions. Such assumptions may be perfectly plausible and even true. Still, one should occasionally put them to a test. Putting them to a test means that we stop using the methodology associated with them, start doing science in a different way and see what happens.

1944. Fest, Joachim. Plotting Hitler's Death, p. 236.

““And what happened next?”
“Silence happened next. God, it was beautiful.””
The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)

On attempts at keeping a journal, as quoted in Stylus (20 December 2005)