“Most artists, whether in religion, music, literature, painting, or what not, are shopkeepers in disguise. They hide their shop as much as they can, and keep pretending that it does not exist, but they are essentially shopkeepers and nothing else.”

—  Samuel Butler

The Artist and the Shopkeeper
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XI - Cash and Credit

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Samuel Butler232
novelist 1835–1902

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