Quotes on Literature

What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.

The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wit in their literature.

Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value.

In literature imitations do not imitate.

Comedy keeps the heart sweet; but we all know that there is wholesome refreshment for both mind and heart in an occasional climb among the pomps of the intellectual snow-summits built by Shakespeare and those others.

The crown of literature is poetry.

But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences - is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.

Literature is the question minus the answer.

Literature is like any other trade; you will never sell anything unless you go to the right shop.

I think that the Bible as literature should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum.. you can't understand English literature and culture without it. But insofar as theology studies the nature of the divine, it will earn the right to be taken seriously when it provides the slightest, smallest smidgen of a reason for believing in the existence of the divine. Meanwhile, we should devote as much time to studying serious theology as we devote to studying serious fairies and serious unicorns.

The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind.

A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.

The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud between Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. James won, and it split literature into two streams. But it's a totally false dichotomy.

An early-rising man is a good spouse but a bad husband.

Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.

It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.

The disobedient child is continuously condemned. The obedient child is, on the other hand, continuously praised. But have you heard of any obedient child having become world-famous in any dimension of creativity? Have you heard of any obedient child who has attained the Nobel prize for anything - literature, peace, science? The obedient child becomes just the common crowd. All that is added to existence is added by the disobedient.

We must believe in free will - we have no choice.