Literature Quotes

The text is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.

I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.

Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

It is easy to see the glow but hard to recognize the awakening of silence.

Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca.

Poetry is a good medium for revolutionary hope.

People don't expect too much from literature. They just want to know they're not alone with being confused.

It's funny, in literature no one ever goes to the lavatory.

All writers are waiting for replies. That’s what I’ve learned. Maybe all human beings are

Literature is painting, architecture, and music.

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.

Literature is like phosphorus: it shines with its maximum brilliance and the moment when it attempts to die.

Many of our ideas of democracy, so much of our literature and philosophy and science can be traced back to roots right here in Athens.

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

At college, and perhaps for a year afterwards, they had believed in literature, had believed in Beauty and in personal expression as an absolute end. When they lost this belief, they lost everything.

From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.

Malice is always authentic and sincere.

Your reader is at least as bright as you are

Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do.

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be that have tried it.

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

What you risk reveals what you value.

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.

The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love.

Know which officials are voted into office and which are appointed, and by whom.

And the commencement of atonement is the sense of its necessity.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

The art of the cuisine, when fully mastered, is the one human capability of which only good things can be said.

It is also said of me that I now and then contradict myself. Yes, I improve wonderfully as time goes on.

Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.

My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious.

In terms of broadcasting, you have to make decisions about where you want to spend your time.

I am not a prophet in any sense of the word, and I entertain an active and intense dislike of the foregoing mixture of optimism, fatalism, and conservatism.

The short story is the literature of the nomad.

A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.

He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor.

They're thinking of turning the peasant into an educated man. Why, first of all they should make him a good and prosperous farmer and then he'll learn all that is necessary for him to know.

Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

A demagogue is a person with whom we disagree as to which gang should mismanage the country.

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.

To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

Job is perhaps the oldest piece of literature known to man. How did Job know the Earth is suspended in space? Job could only know through divine inspiration.

Literature is the memory of humanity.

Sadistic literature is not only inhumane. It is anti-human.

Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style.

Most of those who make collections of verse or epigram are like men eating cherries or oysters: they choose out the best at first, and end by eating all.

Children's books are often seen as the poor relation of literature. But children are just as demanding as adult readers, if not more so. I should know. I'm a children's writer myself.