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.
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Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade; today it is the reverse.
Literature was formerly an art and finance a trade; today it is the reverse.
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 writer in western civilization has become not a voice of his tribe, but of his individuality. This is a read more
The writer in western civilization has become not a voice of his tribe, but of his individuality. This is a very narrow-minded situation.
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen read more
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.
Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from read more
The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving.
There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the
literature of power. The function of the first is--to read more
There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the
literature of power. The function of the first is--to teach; the
function of the second is--to move, the first is a rudder, the
second an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive
understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to
the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections
of pleasure and sympathy.
- Thomas De Quincey ("The Opium Eater"),
Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even though they bring gifts. - Aeneid, read more
Do not trust the horse, Trojans! Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even though they bring gifts. - Aeneid, The.
There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a read more
There is no real teacher who in practice does not believe in the existence of the soul, or in a magic that acts on it through speech.
