Quotes

Quotes about Literary


Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

Samuel Johnson

Note 1.See Chapman, Quotation 20.

Among the many things he has requested of me to-night, this is the principal,--that on his gravestone shall be this inscription.--Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton): Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats. Letter to Severn, vol. ii. p. 91.

John Keats

Literary men are ... a perpetual priesthood.

Thomas Carlyle

It is long since Mr. Carlyle expressed his opinion that if any poet or other literary creature could really be "killed off by one critique" or many, the sooner he was so despatched the better; a sentiment in which I for one humbly but heartily concur.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Any serious literary artist envies music, which has an apparently self-referríng language, cannot preach or inform, and totally identifies form and content

Reviewers do not read books with much care . . . their profession is more given to stupidity and malice and literary ignorance even than the profession of novelist.

The epic poem no longer exists - we are left with the novel, the only literary genre for failed symphonists

One does not write literary theses out of one's uneasy soul

I'm a dabbler, a literary man, a sort of poet even

Dictionary: A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.

Ambrose Bierce

Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political.

Ignazio Silone

Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and schools combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke words of life such as never were spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of any orator or poet; without writing a single line, He has set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and sweet songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe. There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man.

Philip Schaff

This is great literature and great religious literature, this collection of ancient writings we call the Bible, and any translator has a deep sense of responsibility as he undertakes to transmit it to modern readers. He desires his transcript to be faithful to the meaning of the original, so far as he can reach that meaning, and also to do some justice to its literary qualities. But he is well aware that his aim often exceeds his grasp. Translation may be a fascinating task, yet no discipline is more humbling. You may be translating oracles, but soon you learn the risk and folly of posing as an oracle yourself. If your readers are dissatisfied at any point, they may be sure that the translator is still more dissatisfied, if not there, then elsewhere—all the more so, because, in the nature of the case, he has always to appear dogmatic in print.

James Moffatt

Feast of Joseph of Nazareth Men today do not, perhaps, burn the Bible, nor does the Roman Catholic Church any longer put it on the Index, as it once did. But men destroy it in the form of exegesis: they destroy it in the way they deal with it. They destroy it by not reading it as written in normal, literary form, by ignoring its historical-grammatical exegesis, by changing the Bible's own perspective of itself as propositional revelation in space and time, in history.

Francis Schaeffer

No literary fact is more remarkable than that men, knowing what these writers knew, and feeling what they felt, should have given us chronicles so plain and calm. They have nothing to say as from themselves. Their narratives place us without preface, and keep us without comment, among external scenes, in full view of facts, and in contact with the living person whom they teach us to know... Who can fail to recognize a divine provision for placing the disciples of all future ages as nearly as possible in the position of those who had been personally present at "the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God"?

T. D. Bernard

Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397 In short: in all his ways and walks, whether as touching his own business, or his dealings with other men, he must keep his heart with all diligence, lest he do aught, or turn aside to aught, or suffer aught to spring up or dwell within him or about him, or let anything be done in him or through him, otherwise than were meet for God, and would be possible and seemly if God Himself were verily made Man. ... Theologia Germanica November 12, 1997 The Partisan Review, a journal of literary opinion representing a section of advanced secular thought, recently published a series of papers answering the question, "Why has there been a turn toward religion among intellectuals?" The asking of the question is significant. Few writers dispute the fact implied by it. Most of the contributors, whether they count themselves among those who have "turned to religion" or not, find the principal reason for it in the collapse of the optimistic hope that modern science and human good will would bring the world into an era of peace and justice. The confidence in that outcome has been so violently shaken that men must ask whether there are not higher resources than man's to sustain courage and hope. The faith of the Bible points to such sources. God works within the tragic destiny of human efforts with a healing power, and a reconciling spirit. Even those who have felt completely superior to all "outworn" religious notions, must look today at least wistfully to the possibility that such a God lives and works.

D. D. Williams

I can't do literary work for the rest of this year because I'm meditating another lawsuit and looking around for a defendant.

Mark Twain

Literary Men are . . . a perpetual priesthood.

Thomas Carlyle

The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.

Aldous Huxley

One learns little more about a man from his feats of literary memory than from the feats of his alimentary canal.

Frank Moore Colby

If you look at history you'll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.

Desiderius Erasmus

He liked those literary cooks Who skim the cream of others' books; And ruin half an author's graces By plucking bon-mots from their places.

Hannah More

Satire lies about literary men while they live and eulogy lies about them when they die. [Fr., La satire ment sur les gens de lettres pendant leur vie, et l'eloge ment apres leur mort.]

Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire)

These (literary) studies are the food of youth, and consolation of age; they adorn prosperity, and are the comfort and refuge of adversity; they are pleasant at home, and are no incumbrance abroad; they accompany us at night, in our travels, and in our rural retreats. [Lat., Haec studia adolecentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis solatium et perfugium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.

Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

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