“A life postponed too long might never be lived.”
Joan Slonczewski book A Door into Ocean
Part 2, Chapter 9 (p. 111)
A Door into Ocean (1986)
"The Enormous Womb", p. 96
The Wisdom of the Heart (1941)
“A life postponed too long might never be lived.”
Joan Slonczewski book A Door into Ocean
Part 2, Chapter 9 (p. 111)
A Door into Ocean (1986)
“The discipline of postponing gratification is the single most important discipline your son needs.”
Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate
Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 98
Anatole France book The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
Tous les changements, même les plus souhaités ont leur mélancolie, car ce que nous quittons, c'est une partie de nous-mêmes; il faut mourir à une vie pour entrer dans une autre.
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
St. 3. <br class="br"> Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1169/ (July 21, 1865) <br class="br">Context: The little that we do<br>Is but half-nobly true;<br>With our laborious hiving<br>What men call treasure, and the gods call dross,<br>Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving,<br>Only secure in every one's conniving,<br>A long account of nothings paid with loss.
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Bias, 5.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer
Nobel Prize lecture (12 December 1976)
General sources
Context: A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life. It tells us that for every human being there is a diversity of existences, that the single existence is itself an illusion in part, that these many existences signify something, tend to something, fulfill something; it promises us meaning, harmony, and even justice.
Michael Swanwick book Stations of the Tide
Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 3, “The Dance of the Inheritors” (p. 46)
Al Capone (1899–1947) American gangster
Interview with Claud Cockburn, as quoted in “Mr. Capone, Philosopher,” Cockburn Sums Up (1981)