Work and Profession

Does it matter?—losing your sight? …

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

When asked what was first in oratory, [he] replied to his questioner, ‘action,’ what second, ‘action,’ and again third, ‘action’.

A man you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. . . . We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas, but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

I hate writing, but I love having written.

Write out of love; write out of instinct; write out of reason. But always for money.

There comes a moment in the day, when you have written your pages in the morning, attended to your correspondence in the afternoon, and have nothing further to do. Then comes the hour when you are bored; that’s the time for sex.

Keep your bones in good motion, kid, and quietly consume and digest what is necessary. I think it is not so much important to build a literary thing as it is not to hurt things. I think it is important to be quiet and in love with park benches; solve whole areas of pain by walking across a rug .

Life is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.

 

The man-hero is not the exceptional monster, But he that of repetition is most master.

I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils,

Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man’s the workman in it.

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

Someone once asked me whether I thought women artists should have children, and, since we were beyond discussing why this question is never asked of artists who are men, I gave my answer promptly. “Yes,” I said, somewhat to my surprise. And, as if to amend my rashness, I added: “They should have children— assuming this is of interest to them —but only one.” “Why only one?” this Someone wanted to know. “Because with one you can move,” I said. “With more than one you’re a sitting duck.”

Never tire yourself more than necessary, even if you have to found a culture on the fatigue of your bones.

Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect.

The two valets sit at the top of the table, but at least I have the honor of being placed above the cooks.

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.

I bowl so slow that if after I have delivered the ball I don’t like the look of it, I can run after it and bring it back.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die.

If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.