There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Like many a better one before me, I have gone down under the force of numbers, under the books and books and books that keep coming out and coming out and coming out, shoals of them, spates of them, flash floods of them, too blame many books, and no sign of an end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the overwhelming nature of the vast amount of literature and information available, suggesting a struggle to keep pace.
Dorothy Parker highlights the daunting challenge of navigating the endless flood of books and knowledge that continues to grow. The imagery of 'shoals' and 'flash floods' suggests a relentless surge that can be both inspiring and overwhelming, pointing to a common experience among readers and scholars who feel inundated by the sheer volume of information and literature that is continuously produced.
Themes
BooksKnowledgeInformationReadingLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about modern literature, one could cite this quote to express the challenges of staying up-to-date.
More from Dorothy Parker
All quotes →My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges.
Dorothy ParkerRead
Prince or commoner, tenor or bass, Painter or plumber or never-do-well, Do me a favor and shut your face - Poets alone should kiss and tell.
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They say of me, and so they should, It's doubtful if I come to good. I see acquaintances and friends Accumulating dividends And making enviable names In science, art and parlor games. But I, despite expert advice, Keep doing things I think are nice, And though to good I never come Inseparable my nose and thumb.
Dorothy ParkerRead
It is that word 'hunny,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
Dorothy ParkerRead
I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
Dorothy ParkerRead
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