difficult quotes

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

- G(ilbert) K(eith) Chesterton
  What's Wrong with the World, ch.1,'The Unfinished Temple'.

The poet is the unsatisfied child who dares to ask the difficult question which arises from the schoolmaster's answer to his simple question, and then the still more difficult question which arises from that.

- Robert von Ranke Graves
Recalled on his death,7 Dec1985.

   Endure what is difficult to endure and to suffer what is difficult to suffer.

-Hirohito
  Declaration,15  Aug. Quoted in Hugh Cortazzi  The Japanese Achievement (1990).

There is more learning in their [Chinese] languagethan in anyother, fromthe immensenumberof their characters. It is only more difficult from its rudeness, as there is more labour in hewing down a tree with a stone than with an axe.

- Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
BOSWELL:JOHNSON:1778  Conversation, 8 May. Quoted in  James Boswell  The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.3.

Resolve not to be poor; whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy tohumanhappiness; itcertainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult. 446

- Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
  Letter to Boswell,7 Dec. Quoted in  James Boswell  The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.4.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

- Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
Of the playing of a famous violinist. Quoted in G B Hill Johnsonian Miscellanies, vol.2 (1784).

Difficile est saturam non scribere. It is difficult not to write satire.

-Juvenal full name Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis
Satirae, no.1, l.30.

Some time ago, in an interview that turned towards the Theatre, I suggested that 'Pubic hair is not an adequate substitute for wit'. My point now is that depending upon shock tactics is easy, whereas writing a good play is difficult.

-J(ohn) B(oynton) Priestley
  Outcries and Asides,'Danger of ShockTactics'.

Ich habe um meine Kindheit gebeten, und sie ist wiedergekommen, und ich fu«  hle, dass sie immer noch so schwer ist wie damals, und dass es nichts genu«  tzt hat,  a« lter zu werden. I prayed to rediscover my childhood, and it has come back, and I feel that it is just as difficult as it used to be, and that growing older has served no purpose at all. 687

- Rainer Maria Rilke
  DieAufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (translated by Stephen Mitchell in The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1989).

When a piece gets difficult make faces.

- Artur Schnabel
Quoted in Oscar Levant TheUnimportance of BeingOscar (1968).

The sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists.

- Artur Schnabel
Quoted in Nat Shapiro An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music (1978).

Thinking precisely and systematically about something as complex and irregular as a modern economy is very difficult, maybe impossible.

- Robert M Solow
  In the NewYorkTimes Book Review, 30 Dec.

   'Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Master Harryevery man of every nation has done that'tis the living up to it that is difficult.

-William Makepeace Thackeray
  The History of Henry Esmond, bk.1, ch.6.