James Harris

“no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is occupied with many things—eloquence cannot exist, nor expansive studying—since the mind, when its interests are divided, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The condition of all who are engrossed is poor, but poorest is the condition of those who labour at engrossments that are not even their own, who regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by the pace of another, who are under orders—loving and hating.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader