"Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
"They say the test of [literary power] is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, "Can he name a kitten?" And by this test I am condemned, for I cannot."
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Source: Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4166, Delphi Classics
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"Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning."
"If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success."
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