A. C. Benson Quotes

A. C. Benson Quotes

A. C. Benson was an acclaimed writer academic, essayist, and poet. He was also The 28th master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In addition to being famous for writing the lyrics to the song "Land of Glory and Hope The Land of Hope and Glory', Benson also wrote down many ghost stories. He is also credited with be the one who shaped the contemporary development of Magdalene and was the Gresham's School's 'Governor'.

 Born into a family of writers in which his brothers were famous novelists, his desire for writing was evident. Despite his fame for his prolific writing, an extensive portion of his existence was marked by periods of depressed moods. Benson is well-known to have written diary entries in a total of 180 notebooks in which he expressed his thoughts, opinions, and views about subjects that were close to his own heart. We've compiled a selection of famous quotes and sayings from A. C. Benson that were taken from his diary entries, writings poems, essays and books, as well as stories, thoughts and other writings.

 "Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene." ~ A. C. Benson

 "People seldom refuse help, if one offers it in the right way." ~ A. C. Benson

"The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears." ~ A. C. Benson

 "People who deal with life generously and large-heartedly go on multiplying relationships to the end." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Readjusting is a painful process, but most of us need it at one time or another." ~ A. C. Benson

 "As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Keeping up appearances is the most expensive thing in the world." ~ A. C. Benson

 "A well begun is half ended." ~ A. C. Benson

 "The joy of all mysteries is the certainty which comes from their contemplation, that there are many doors yet for the soul to open on her upward and inward way." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I believe in instinct, not reason. When reason is right, nine times out of ten it is impotent, and when it prevails, nine times out of ten it is wrong." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I don't like authority, at least I don't like other people's authority." ~ A. C. Benson

 "It seems sometimes as if one were powerless to do any more from within to overcome troubles, and that help must come from without." ~ A. C. Benson

 "The moment that any life, however good, stifles you, you may be sure it isn't your real life." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Congenial labor is the secret of happiness." ~ A. C. Benson

 "There remain times when one can only endure. One lives on, one doesn't die, and the only thing that one can do, is to fill one's mind and time as far as possible with the concerns of other people. It doesn't bring immediate peace, but it brings the dawn nearer." ~ A. C. Benson

 "When you get to my age life seems little more than one long march to and from the lavatory." ~ A. C. Benson

 "It is often wonderful how putting down on paper a clear statement of a case helps one to see, not perhaps the way out, but the way in." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I think I feel rather differently about sympathy to what seems the normal view. I like just to feel it is there, but not always expressed." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I expect that all of us get pretty much what we deserve of appreciation." ~ A. C. Benson

 "The friend is the person whom one is in need of and by whom one is needed." ~ A. C. Benson

 "One's mind has a way of making itself up in the background, and it suddenly becomes clear what one means to do." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I am sure it is one's duty as a teacher to try to show boys that no opinions, no tastes, no emotions are worth much unless they are one's own. I suffered acutely as a boy from the lack of being shown this." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I never enter a new company without the hope that I may discover a friend, perhaps the friend, sitting there with an expectant smile. That hope survives a thousand disappointments." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Congenial labor is essence of happiness." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping." ~ A. C. Benson

 "A diary need not be a dreary chronicle of one's movements; it should aim rather at giving salient account of some particular episode, a walk, a book, a conversation." ~ A. C. Benson

 "All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape." ~ A. C. Benson

 "The test of a good letter is a very simple one. If one seems to hear the other person talking as one reads, it is a good letter." ~ A. C. Benson

 "I have known some quite good people who were unhappy, but never an interested person who was unhappy." ~ A. C. Benson

 "Do you know the times when one seems to stick fast in circumstances like the fly in the jam-pot? It can't be helped, and I suppose the best thing to do is to lay in a good store of jam!" ~ A. C. Benson