Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
Lionel TrillingRead
The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The poet reflects society but also shapes it with their work.
This quote by Lionel Trilling emphasizes that while poets and artists can measure and gauge the emotional and social climate of their times, they also play an active role in creating that climate. It suggests a dual relationship where the poet is both an observer and a participant, influencing and being influenced by the world around them.
Themes
PoetBarometerWeatherSocietyArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a literary festival, a speaker might use this quote to discuss the role of poets in society.
More from Lionel Trilling
All quotes βOur culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.
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Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.
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Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.
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There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.
Lionel TrillingRead
We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.
Lionel TrillingRead
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I always want to do music that inspires or influences another generation. You want what you create to live, be it sculpture or painting or music. Like Michelangelo, he said, βI know the creator will go, but his work survives. That is why to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work.
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