Jia Dao 賈島
early 9th century · Tang China
Two lines, three years in the getting. I chant them once and two streams of tears run down. If those who know my music do not care for them, I shall go home and lie down in the autumn of my old hills.
二句三年得，一吟雙淚流。
知音如不賞，歸臥故山秋。"Written After a Poem," in the Complete Tang Poems
In the same thread
Saito Ryokuu 斎藤緑雨
1900 · Meiji Japan · That is, writing will not keep you fed
Consider: the pen is one, and chopsticks are two. Know that the few are no match for the many.
按ずるに筆は一本也、箸は二本也。衆寡敵せずと知るべし。"Seigan hakuto"
G. K. Chesterton
1910 · London, England · The closing sentence of a chapter that takes the side of the amateur who does many things with her own hands, badly, against the specialist who does one thing well
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
What's Wrong with the World, part 4, chapter 14
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us