Quotes About Literature

I'm an American, I'm a Jew, and I write for all men.

Lei si recava in biblioteca in media due volte a settimana, prendendo solo un libro o due per volta, perché ritornare a chiederne un altro era una delle sue poche gioie. Anche nei momenti in cui si sentiva più sola le piaceva trovarsi in mezzo ai libri, sebbene qualche volta fosse deprimente vedere il numero dei volumi che non aveva ancora letto.

Because she knew nothing about the authors, she assumed they were contemporaries, unless something indicated this was obviously impossible. I was astonished at how much older literature can actually be read as if it were contemporary; to anyone ignorant of history, it would be easy to see ways of life in earlier times simply as ways of life in foreign countries.

De literatuur of het leven? Het leven want de literatuur; het leven leeft voor mij pas echt, het is pas echt diepgaand en lijfelijk het leven, wanneer ik weet dat ik er woorden aan zal kunnen ontrukken.

To leave a whisper of myself in the world, my ghost, a magna opera of words.

To me it was obvious that experimental literature was experimenting on the reader, and Hanna didn't need that and neither did I.

People ask all the time what I learned in the camps. But the camps weren't therapy. What do you think these places were? Universities? We didn't go there to learn. One becomes very clear about these things. What are you asking for? Forgiveness for her? Or do you just want to feel better yourself? My advice, go to the theatre, if you want catharsis, please. Go to literature. Don't go to the camps. Nothing comes out of the camps. Nothing.

I was astonished at how much older literature can actually be read as if it were contemporary.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it [on Goodreads].

Philosophy, for Plato, is a kind of vision, the 'vision of truth' ... Everyone who has done any kind of creative work has experienced, in a greater or less degree, the state of mind in which, after long labour, truth or beauty appears, or seems to appear, in a sudden glory – it may only be about some small matter, or it may be about the universe ... I think most of the best creative work, in art, in science, in literature, and in philosophy, has been the result of such a moment.

How pleasant a world would be in which no man was allowed to operate on the Stock Exchange unless he could pass and examination in economics and Greek poetry, and in which politicians were obliged to have a competent knowledge of history and modern novels.

My advice to anyone who wishes to write is to know all the very best literature by heart, and ignore the rest as completely as possible.

But truth is not the only merit that a metaphysic can possess. It may have beauty, and this is certainly to be found in Plotinus; there are passages that remind one of the later cantos of Dante's Para- diso, and of almost nothing else in literature. Now

The religious element in patriotism is reinforced by education, especially by a knowledge of the history and literature of one's own country, provided it is not accompanied by much knowledge of the history and literature of other countries.

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

A word is used correctly when the average hearer will be affected by it in the way intended. This is a psychological, not a literary, definition of correctness. The literary definition would substitute, for the average hearer, a person of high education living a long time ago; the purpose of this definition is to make it difficult to speak or write correctly.

There are 2 motives for reading a book; 1. That you enjoy it, 2. that can boast about it on goodreads.

Why do people read? The answer, as regards the great majority, is: 'They don't.

Those of us who love poetry read the great masterpieces of modern literature before we have any experience of the passions they deal with. To come across a new masterpiece with a more mature mind is a wonderful experience, and one which I have found almost overwhelming.

Children were idealized by Wordsworth and un-idealized by Freud. Marx was the Wordsworth of the proletariat; its Freud is still to come.

it was above all to Plutarch that they turned. He influenced profoundly the English and French liberals of the eighteenth century, and the founders of the United States; he influenced the romantic movement in Germany, and has continued, mainly by indirect channels, to influence German thought down to the present day.

Há dois motivos para ler um livro. Um: porque você gosta; o outro: pra você se gabar disto.

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it [on Goodreads]." - Bertrand Russell

There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." - Bertrand Russell