But wherefore thou alone? Wherefore with theeCame not all hell broke loose? Is pain to themLess pain, less to be fled, or thou than theyLess hardy to endure? Courageous chief,The first in flight from pain, hadst thou allegedTo thy deserted host this cause of flight,Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive. - Paradise Lost.
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Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man -- the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
An understanding heart is everything is a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to read more
An understanding heart is everything is a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
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.
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself read more
The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple.
People do not deserve to have good writings; they are so pleased with the bad.
People do not deserve to have good writings; they are so pleased with the bad.
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious read more
The poets did well to conjoin music and medicine, because the office of medicine is but to tune the curious harp of man's body.
The classics are only primitive literature. They belong to the same class as primitive machinery and primitive music and primitive read more
The classics are only primitive literature. They belong to the same class as primitive machinery and primitive music and primitive medicine.
