Quotes on Literature

I never had to choose a subject - my subject rather chose me.

All our words from loose using have lost their edge.

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.

All things truly wicked start from innocence.

Whether a revolution succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.

I have never seen an ass who talked like a human being, but I have met many human beings who talked like asses.

One thing above all gives charm to men's thoughts, and this is unrest. A mind that is not uneasy irritates and bores me.

An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.

Suffering... We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me.

The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.

I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.