We cultivate literature on a little oat-meal.

We cultivate literature on a little oat-meal.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a losttradition.

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a losttradition.

The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other down;The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While read more

The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other down;The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While secret laughter titter'd round the place;The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,The matrons glance that would those looks reprove:These were thy charms, sweet village; sports like these,With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;These were thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,These were thy charms -- but all these charms are fled. - Deserted Village, The.

A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.

A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, / The pen is mightier than the sword.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, / The pen is mightier than the sword.

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

Literature, the most seductive, the most deceiving, the most dangerous of professions.

Literature, the most seductive, the most deceiving, the most dangerous of professions.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,And breathed in the face of the foe as he read more

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! - Destruction of Sennacherib, The.

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no read more

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet. A majority by definition, society thinks of itself as having other options than reading verses, no matter how well written. Its failure to do so results in its sinking to that level of locution at which society falls easy prey to a demagogue or a tyrant. This is society's own equivalent of oblivion.