Quote

Literature nowadays is a trade... the successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets.

George Gissing

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

George Gissing
Age: 46 †
Born: 1857
Born: January 1
Died: 1903
Died: January 1
Novelist
Writer
George R. Gissing
G. R. Gissing
George Robert Gissing
Trade
Successful
Tradesman
Literature
Skilful
Firsts
Foremost
First
Nowadays
Men
Markets
Thinking
Letters
Thinks

More quotes by George Gissing

Image
Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.
George Gissing
Image
I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.
George Gissing
Image
Human creatures have a mervellous power of adapting themselves to necessity.
George Gissing
Image
That is one of the bitter curses of poverty it leaves no right to be generous.
George Gissing
Image
In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival-almost one may call it-of afternoon tea...the mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose.
George Gissing
Image
Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual vice.
George Gissing
Image
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.
George Gissing
Image
Have the courage of your desire.
George Gissing
Image
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.
George Gissing
Image
And why should any man who writes, even if he writes things immortal, nurse anger at the world's neglect? Who asked him to publish? Who promised him a hearing? Who has broken faith with him? Your poem, your novel, who bargained with you for it?
George Gissing
Image
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!
George Gissing
Image
Money is time. With money I buy for cheerful use the hours which otherwise would not in any sense be mine nay, which would make me their miserable bondsman.
George Gissing
Image
For one thing, I know every book of mine by its scent.
George Gissing
Image
London is a huge shop, with a hotel on the upper storeys.
George Gissing
Image
To every man it is decreed: Thou shalt live alone. Happy they who imagine that they have escaped the common lot happy, whilst they imagine it.
George Gissing
Image
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.
George Gissing
Image
For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
George Gissing
Image
Parks are but pavement disguised with a growth of grass.
George Gissing
Image
Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self compassion.
George Gissing
Image
Money is made at Christmas out of holly and mistletoe, but who save the vendors would greatly care if no green branch were procurable?
George Gissing