When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edith HamiltonRead
A people's literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature reflects the true character and knowledge of a society.
Edith Hamilton emphasizes that literature serves as a profound medium through which we can understand a culture and its people. Unlike historical accounts, contemporary writings capture the essence, values, and quality of a societyβs character, offering insights into their beliefs, struggles, and aspirations.
Themes
LiteratureKnowledgeCultureSocietyCharacter
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about how literature can reflect societal values, this quote could serve as a strong point.
More from Edith Hamilton
All quotes βThe power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.
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Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.
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To rejoice in life, to find the world beautiful ... was a mark of the Greek spirit.
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Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.
Edith HamiltonRead
So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not machines, but human beings.
Edith HamiltonRead
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He's a great writer. If I didn't think so I wouldn't have tried to kill him... I was the champ and when I read his stuff I knew he had something. So I dropped a heavy glass skylight on his head at a drinking party. But you can't kill the guy. He's not human.
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Reduced... to a crude formula, the Russian tragedy is precisely the tragedy of a society in which literature turned out to be the prerogative of the minority.
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