Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
John KeatsRead
Literary men are . . . a perpetual priesthood.
Interpretation
What this quote means
John Keats likens literary individuals to priests, suggesting they have a sacred duty to the art of literature.
In this quote, John Keats reflects on the role of literary figures as akin to a priesthood, highlighting their continuous dedication to the craft of writing and storytelling. Just as priests serve a higher purpose in spiritual matters, literary men are seen as caretakers of language and culture, responsible for preserving, interpreting, and imparting the profound truths of human experience through their works.
Themes
LiteraturePriesthoodArtWritingDedication
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of writers at a literary festival.
More from John Keats
All quotes βAre there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
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Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it β make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me βwrite the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair.
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Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
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I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
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...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.
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