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The creative instinct is, in its final analysis and in its simplest terms, an enormous extra vitality, a super-energy, born inexplicably in an individual, a vitality great beyond all the needs of his own living — an energy which no single life can consume.

— Pearl S. Buck The Chinese Novel (1938)

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More quotes by Pearl S. Buck

Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns how to be amused rather than shocked.

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and so they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.

An Apple for the Teacher: Fundamentals for Instructional Computing (1983)

Every event has had its cause, and nothing, not the least wind that blows, is accident or causeless.

My Several Worlds (1954)

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.

What America Means to Me (1943)

None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.

What America Means to Me (1943)

All Pearl S. Buck quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pearl S. Buck (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.