Quotations and Literature Forum

True or false? Is the quote by Samuel Butler: "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all." correct or should it not be "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Confusion

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DannyT, young ball

It is accurate.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Samuel_Butler

it is only a joking distortion of a well-known adage, ''It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all''
http://www.kahome.co.uk/quote.htm

The text is as follows:

"And it is I," he said, "who not an hour ago complained that I was without hope. It is I, who for weeks have been railing at fortune, and saying that though she smiled on others she never smiled at me. Why, never was anyone half so fortunate as I am."
"Yes," said I, "you have been inoculated for marriage, and have recovered."
"And yet," he said, "I was very fond of her till she took to drinking."
"Perhaps; but is it not Tennyson who has said: ''Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have lost at all'?"
"You are an inveterate bachelor," was the rejoinder.
~Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, Chapter 77
http://members.fortunecity.com/novelart ... lsh10.html

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
~verse 27

This truth came borne with bier and pall,
I felt it, when I sorrow'd most,
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all -
~verse 85
by ALFRED LORD TENNYSON (1809-1883)
IN MEMORIAM A. H. H.

"Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved."
~George Crabbe (1754-1832), The Struggles of Conscience (Tale xiv)

“The pleasures of love are still greater than the pain of its loss."
The saying was first used in this form by the English poet Alfred Tennyson (1850), but has a precursor in a play (1700) by William Congreve.
"It is better to have been left than never to have been loved"
~William Congreve, ‘The Way of the World.’
The previous two citings are copy and paste from another quotation forum

There are a few quotes like this in my collection, and they raise questions every time somebody spots them.

I try to keep the 'real' versions of the same quotes on file too. So when in doubt, try a search.

(thenostromo, thanks for the attribution for the Butler quote!)

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Michael Moncur
Owner and maintainer, The Quotations Page