28 Quotes & Sayings By Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), British novelist and social commentator, was the elder son of a prosperous Manchester tanner, William Bennett. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. His father's death in 1883 left him, at the age of 18, with an inheritance of £14,000. He used the money to set up a business in partnership with two friends Read more

However, he did not make his fortune until he was 35 years old when he sold the business for £17,000. His first published novel, The Old Wives' Tale (1895), was an immediate success both in England and America. He married Florence Emily Garside in 1897.

After her death in 1921 he married another woman in 1923 - Vera Bennett.

1
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. Arnold Bennett
The proper, wise balancingof one's whole life may depend upon...
2
The proper, wise balancingof one's whole life may depend upon thefeasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour. Arnold Bennett
Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one...
3
Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest thing there is. Arnold Bennett
4
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. . Arnold Bennett
5
It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top. Arnold Bennett
6
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. Arnold Bennett
7
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. Arnold Bennett
8
You probably think of the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instrumentsproducing a confused agreeable massof sound. You do not listen for details because you have never trained your ears to listen to details. Arnold Bennett
9
It is difficult to make a reputation, but is even more difficult seriously to mar a reputation once properly made --- so faithful is the public. Arnold Bennett
10
Without the power to concentrate thatis to say, without the power to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience true life is impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence. Arnold Bennett
11
The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not living. Arnold Bennett
12
And since nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurt us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent. Arnold Bennett
13
Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like all-embracing compassion. Arnold Bennett
14
A man of sixty has spent twenty years in bed and over three years in eating. Arnold Bennett
15
Any change even a change for the better is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. Arnold Bennett
16
No matter what has happened always behave as if nothing had happened. Arnold Bennett
17
The parents exist to teach the child but also they must learn what the child has to teach them and the child has a very great deal to teach them. Arnold Bennett
18
It is well when judging a friend to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality. Arnold Bennett
19
A sense of the value of time ... is an essential preliminary to efficient work it is the only method of avoiding hurry. Arnold Bennett
20
We shall never have more time. We have and have always had all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until to-morrow. Keep going.... Concentrate on something useful. Arnold Bennett
21
If you've ever really been poor you remain poor at heart all your life. Arnold Bennett
22
The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense. Arnold Bennett
23
Worry is evidence of an ill-controlled brain it is merely a stupid waste of time in unpleasantness. Arnold Bennett
24
Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life. Arnold Bennett
25
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. Arnold Bennett
26
Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like. Arnold Bennett
27
Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. Arnold Bennett