Arnold Bennett

Novelist

1867-05-27 – 1931-03-27

English novelist, playwright, and essayist associated with realist fiction of the early 20th century. He is known for works set in the Potteries region, including The Old Wives Tale and the Clayhanger trilogy. His fiction and criticism made him a major figure in modern English letters.

Quotes by Arnold Bennett

There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.
Read quote
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate.
Read quote
Ardour in well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of rivers. It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, I've had enough of this.
Read quote
The proper, wise balancingof one's whole life may depend upon thefeasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.
Read quote
Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest thing there is.
Read quote
The chief beauty about timeis that you cannot waste it in advance.The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,as perfect, as unspoiled,as if you had never wasted or misapplieda single moment in all your life.You can turn over a new leaf every hourif you choose.
Read quote
Ardour in well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of rivers. It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, I've had enough of this.
Read quote
The proper, wise balancingof one's whole life may depend upon thefeasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.
Read quote
The chief beauty about timeis that you cannot waste it in advance.The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,as perfect, as unspoiled,as if you had never wasted or misapplieda single moment in all your life.You can turn over a new leaf every hourif you choose.
Read quote
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate.
Read quote
Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest thing there is.
Read quote
There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.
Read quote
Well, my deliberate opinion is - it's a jolly strange world.
Read quote
To the artist is sometimes granted a sudden, transient insight which serves in this matter for experience. A flash, and where previously the brain held a dead fact, the soul grasps a living truth! At moments we are all artists.
Read quote
Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity.
Read quote
It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top.
Read quote
There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied, he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.
Read quote
Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by tone of voice.
Read quote
Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like.
Read quote
Journalists say a thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.
Read quote