
“The first hundred thousand—that was hard to get; but afterwards it was easy to make more.”
Quoted in James Parton (1865), Life of John Jacob Astor
“The first hundred thousand—that was hard to get; but afterwards it was easy to make more.”
Quoted in James Parton (1865), Life of John Jacob Astor
“Easy writing makes hard reading.”
As quoted in Paris Was Our Mistress (1947) by Samuel Putnam, p. 128
“Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.”
Variant: Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
“Making a spell is easy. It's trusting you did it right that's hard.”
Source: Dead Witch Walking
“Hard work makes easy reading or, at least, easier reading.”
Cornell Chronicle interview (1999)
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.