We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.
Harold BloomRead
... one doesn't want to read badly any more than live badly, since time will not relent. I don't know that we owe God or nature a death, but nature will collect anyway, and we certainly owe mediocrity nothing, whatever collectivity it purports to advance or at least represent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of living and reading well, as life is finite and mediocrity should not be accepted.
Harold Bloom's quote reflects on the intrinsic value of quality in both life and literature. He suggests that just as we seek to avoid a life of mediocrity, we should also strive for excellence in our reading. Life is fleeting, and nature ultimately claims us all; therefore, we owe it to ourselves and the world to resist mediocrity in all its forms. This implies that we should pursue meaningful experiences and connections, whether through literature or in how we live our lives.
Themes
ExcellenceMediocrityLifeReadingExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to inspire students about their future paths.
More from Harold Bloom
All quotes →I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.
Harold BloomRead
Reading well is one of the greatest pleasures that solitude can afford you.
Harold BloomRead
Socrates, in Plato, formulates ideas of order: the Iliad, like Shakespeare, knows that a violent disorder is a great order.
Harold BloomRead
Reading the very best writers—let us say Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy—is not going to make us better citizens. Art is perfectly useless, according to the sublime Oscar Wilde, who was right about everything. He also told us that all bad poetry is sincere. Had I the power to do so, I would command that these words be engraved above every gate at every university, so that each student might ponder the splendor of the insight.
Harold BloomRead
I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
Harold BloomRead
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