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One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.

Approximate author period: c. 1801 AD · industrial

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Walter Scott
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1801 AD · industrial
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1771 to 1832; Wikidata Q79025, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79025 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 461824; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.