American author & advertising executive (1886-1967)
He who withdraws himself from his fellow men lessens his service and impoverishes his life, no matter what work of art may come out of his solitude.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
More Power to You
But sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things--a chance word, or a tap on the shoulder, or a penny dropped on the newsstand--I am tempted to think that nothing dies. And that there are no little things.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
Better Days
It would do the world good if every man in it would compel himself occasionally to be absolutely alone. Away from people, who blunt the edges of his personality: away from books and magazines, which give him his thinking pre-digested: away on a long walk, where he could face the world with a naked mind and compel himself to think some things through by himself. Most of the world's progress has come out of periods of such loneliness.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
More Power to You
There is no great success without concentration: and no concentration in minds that have not been disciplined to long-continued, self-reliant thought.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
More Power to You
In olden days, when towns were more scattered, distances greater, and life less complex, men were accustomed to be alone for hours and even days, and could stand it. The modern man must be talking, or he must be reading, or he must be playing: anything lest by accident he be left alone for a little time and compelled to think.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
More Power to You
The American conception of advertising is to arouse desires and stimulate wants, to make people dissatisfied with the old and out-of-date and by constant iteration to send them out to work harder to get the latest model--whether that model be an icebox or a rug or a new home.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
attributed, Fables of Abundance
There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters... The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure. The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The other sea gives nothing. It is named The Dead. There are two kinds of people in the world. There are two seas in Palestine.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
"There are Two Seas", McCall's, 1928