#difficult

These black times go as they come and we do not know how they come or why they go. But we know that God controls them, as he controls the whole vast cobweb of the mystery of things. ↗

— Elizabeth Goudge

#god #mystery-of-life #life

... While much recent historicist criticism has assumed early nineteenth-century readers attuned to subtle ideological nuances in poetry, actual responses from readers often come closer to clulessness. ... It is no surprise that no one understood Blake, but other poets fared not much better. ... Coleridge's 'Christabel' was 'the standing enigma which puzzles the curiosity of literary circles. What is it all about?', while another reviewer asked about Shelley, 'What, in the name of wonder on one side, and of common sense on the other, is the meaning of this metaphysical rhapsody about the unbinding of Prometheus?'. Even Keats was condemned for 'his frequent obscurity and confusion of language' and his 'unintelligible quaintness'. Byron, never to be outdone, boasted in 'Don Juan' that not only did he not understand many of his fellow poets, he did not understand himself either: 'I don't pretend that I quite understand / My own meaning when I would be very fine.' ... ↗

— Andrew Elfenbein

#incomprehensible #poetry #romantic-poets #romantic

Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools and women. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer. ↗

— Spiro T. Agnew

#been #difficult #fools #little #longer

I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What's more difficult is to identify with someone you don't see, who's very far away, who's a different color, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that then literature is really performing its wonders. ↗

— Chinua Achebe

#begin #color #different #different color #different kind

There's a saying, 'It's easy to write songs, but very difficult to write great songs.' I'm going through that right now. ↗

— Bryan Adams

#easy #going #great #i #now

Among our own people also the church sorely needs clergy in close touch with the ordinary life of the laity, living the life of ordinary men, sharing their difficulties and understanding their trials by close personal experience. ↗

— Roland Allen

#among #church #clergy #close #difficulties

In actuality, there was casting for the show and it was pretty difficult. ↗

— Ted Allen

#casting #difficult #pretty #show

Motion-picture studio floors used to be all wooden and not smooth at all. This was difficult when moving a camera around on a dolly. ↗

— Desi Arnaz

#camera #difficult #dolly #floors #moving

We always expect tremendous criticism. It is my role to be the lightning rod ... to attract the attacks against the organization for our work, and that is a difficult role. On the other hand, I get undue credit. ↗

— Julian Assange

#always #attacks #attract #credit #criticism

Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it. ↗

— Mary Astell

#assist #attainment #courted #difficulties #discouragements