George Gissing
George Gissing
George Robert Gissingwas an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether World, New Grub Street, and The Odd Women...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth22 November 1857
aside cosmic force foremost letters literature man markets men mere nowadays putting succeed successful thinks
Literature nowadays is a trade. Putting aside men of genius, who may succeed by mere cosmic force, your successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets . . .
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The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I gained a new friend; and when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting of an old one.
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For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather, every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
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Human creatures have a mervellous power of adapting themselves to necessity.
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The truths of life are not discovered by us. At moments unforeseen, some gracious influence descends upon the soul, touching it to an emotion which, we know not how, the mind transmutes into thought.
being-yourself men views
I am much better employed from every point of view, when I live solely for my own satisfaction, than when I begin to worry about the world. The world frightens me, and a frightened man is no good for anything.
london hotel shops
London is a huge shop, with a hotel on the upper storeys.
pain causes speak
It is our duty never to speak ill of others, you know; least of all when we know that to do so will be the cause of much pain and trouble.
thinking young should
No, no; women, old or young, should never have to think about money.
order people
To be at other people's orders brings out all the bad in me.
writing people prejudice
People have got that ancient prejudice so firmly rooted in their heads that one mustn't write save at I the dictation of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, writing is a business.
war writing mean
This writer, who is horribly perspicacious and vigorous, demonstrates the certainty of a great European war, and regards it with the peculiar satisfaction excited by such things in a certain order of mind. His phrases about "dire calamity" and so on mean nothing; the whole tenor of his writing proves that he represents, and consciously, one of the forces which go to bring war about; his part in the business is a fluent irresponsibility, which casts scorn on all who reluct at the "inevitable." Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event.
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I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils haricots - those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those tabulated humbugs, those certified aridites calling themselves human food!
cigar hours vacuity
A pipe for the hour of work; a cigarette for the hour of conception; a cigar for the hour of vacuity.