| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 6094 |
| QUOTATION: | In the present age, alas! our pens are ravished by unlettered authors and unmannered critics, that make a havoc rather than a building, a wilderness rather than a garden. But, alack! what boots it to drop tears upon the preterit? |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898), British illustrator, writer. The Story of Venus and Tannhäuser, or Under the Hill, dedicatory epistle (1907). |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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