# Quote — Abraham Cahan, The Rise of David Levinsky

> Sometimes when I am alone in my beautiful apartments, brooding over these things and nursing my loneliness, I say to myself: "There are cases when success is a tragedy." There are moments when I regret my whole career, when my very success seems to be a mistake. I think that I was born for a life of intellectual interest. I was certainly brought up for one. The day when that accident turned my mind from college to business seems to be the most unfortunate day in my life. I think that I should be much happier as a scientist or writer, perhaps. I should then be in my natural element, and if I were doomed to loneliness I should have comforts to which I am now a stranger. That's the way I feel every time I pass the abandoned old building of the City College. The business world contains plenty of successful men who have no brains. Why, then, should I ascribe my triumph to special ability?

- Author: [Abraham Cahan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-cahan.md)
- Book: [The Rise of David Levinsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-cahan/the-rise-of-david-levinsky.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Cahan#The_Rise_of_David_Levinsky_(1917)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/abraham-cahan/the-rise-of-david-levinsky/sometimes-when-i-am-alone

## More from this book

> If it be true that our people represent a high percentage of mental vigor, the distinction is probably due, in some measure, to the extremely important part which Talmud studies have played in the spiritual life of the race.

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> If you feel that you are good, don't be too proud of it.

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> Life is much shorter than I imagined it to be.

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