Bastille Quote by Bret Harte
“Besides writing, I have been teaching myself to 'develop' my own photographic plates, and I haven't a stick of clothing or an exposed finger that isn't stained. I sit for hours in a dark-room feeling as if I were a very elderly Faust at some dreadful incantation, and come out of it, blinding at the light, like a Bastille prisoner. And yet I am not successful!”
About This Quote
He describes his painstaking photographic experiments, likening them to a dark, arduous ritual, yet admits to lacking success.
In simple terms: His artistic process is laborious and often unrewarding.
Key Takeaway
Persist despite difficulty, but reassess methods.
Themes
art
perseverance
experiment
Mood
reflective
frustrated
Type
creative
philosophical
When to use this quote
- studio work
- self‑teaching
- artistic development
Key Concepts
photography
creative process
learning through failure
Questions to Reflect On
- What could you change to improve results?
- Is the effort proportionate to the reward?
A Different Perspective
Obsession can lead to burnout without progress.
![“[My wife] liked to collect old encyclopedias from second-hand bookstores, and at one point we had eight of them. When I wrote my first historical novel---back in 1980, before I was online---I used them often as a research tool. For instance, I learned that the Bastille was either 90 feet high or…” quote by Robert Anton Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/75d/robert-anton-wilson-1198_bastille_my-wife-liked-to-collect-old-encyclopedi_864543.jpg)
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