It is impossible, either in action or in thought, to attend to two things at once, especially if they are of any importance.
[Duas tamen res, magnas praesertim, non modo agere uno tempore, sed ne cogitando quidem explicare quisquam potest.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 11, ch. 9 / sec. 23 (11.9/11.23) (43-02 BC) [ed. Harbottle (1906)]
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(Source (Latin)). Other translations:But still no man can, I will not say do two things, especially two most important things, at one time, but he can not even do entire justice to them both in his thoughts.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]But two things, above all, two great ones, no man can, I do not say, transact at the same time, but even think out with clearness.
[tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]Yet two affairs, especially great, nobody can drive simultaneously, nor even disentangle in the mind.
[tr. Wiseman]
Quotations about:
juggling
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Conversation, as I know it, is like juggling; up go the balls and the balloons and the plates, up and over, in and out, spinning and leaping, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them.
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) English novelist
Brideshead Revisited, Book 1, ch. 2 [Anthony Blanche] (1945)
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