Literature is the question minus the answer.

Literature is the question minus the answer.

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?Since sorrow never comes too late,And happiness too swiftly flies.Thought would destroy their read more

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?Since sorrow never comes too late,And happiness too swiftly flies.Thought would destroy their paradise.No more; where ignorance is bliss,'Tis folly to be wise. - Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.

I made a compact with myself that in my person literature should
stand by itself, of itself, and for read more

I made a compact with myself that in my person literature should
stand by itself, of itself, and for itself.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he read more

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worries and only half the royalties.

And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, read more

And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. - Isaiah 2:4.

We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have read more

We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.