Arthur Symons Quotes

Quotes about:

• A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.

  Arthur Symons

  Venice, Saws, Realist

  Arthur Symons (1907). “Cities of Italy”

  47 Copy quote

• The clamours of spring are the same old delicate noises, The earth renews its magical youth at a breath.

  Arthur Symons

  Spring, Earth, Noise

  Arthur Symons (1919). “Poems”

  26 Copy quote

• As perfume doth remain In the folds where it hath lain, So the thought of you, remaining Deeply folded in my brain, Will not leave me: all things leave me: You remain.

  Arthur Symons

  Love, Crush, Brain

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  17 Copy quote

• Vaguely conscious of that great suspense in which we live, we find our escape from its sterile, annihilating reality in many dreams, in religion, passion, art.

  Arthur Symons

  Dream, Art, Passion

  Arthur Symons, Roger Holdsworth (2003). “Arthur Symons: Selected Writings”, p.84, Psychology Press

  19 Copy quote

• It is in their eyes that their magic resides.

  Arthur Symons

  Cat, Eye, Magic

  9 Copy quote

• The dead are happy, having no desire. I rise and fall, and rise and fall again, Something is in me, famishing for bread, Baffled and unappeasable as fire.

  Arthur Symons

  Fall, Fire, Desire

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  5 Copy quote

• Art begins when a man wishes to immortalize the most vivid moment he has ever lived.

  Arthur Symons

  Art, Men, Wish

  Arthur Symons, Karl E. Beckson (1989). “Arthur Symons, selected letters, 1880-1935”, Univ of Iowa Pr

  5 Copy quote

• To have loved, to have been made happy thus, / What better fate has life in store for us?

  Arthur Symons

  Love, Fate, Made

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  9 Copy quote

• Life is a dream in the night, a fear among fears, A naked runner lost in a storm of spears.

  Arthur Symons

  Life, Dream, Night

  Arthur Symons, Roger Holdsworth (2003). “Arthur Symons: Selected Writings”, p.57, Psychology Press

  6 Copy quote

• There is not a dream which may not come true, if we have the energy which makes, or chooses, our own fate.... It is only the dreams of those light sleepers who dream faintly that do not come true.

  Arthur Symons

  Dream, Fate, Light

  Poems of Ernest Dowson introduction (1900)

  5 Copy quote

• Without charm there can be no fine literature, as there can be no perfect flower without fragrance.

  Arthur Symons

  Flower, Perfect, Literature

  Arthur Symons (1958). “The symbolist movement in literature”

  8 Copy quote

• The English mist is always at work like a subtle painter, and London is a vast canvas prepared for the mist to work on.

  Arthur Symons

  London, Canvas, Mist

  Arthur Symons (1998). “Cities and Sea-Coasts and Islands”, p.162, Northwestern University Press

  10 Copy quote

• Criticism is properly the rod of divination: a hazel switch for the discovery of buried treasure, not a birch twig for the castigation of offenders.

  Arthur Symons

  Discovery, Criticism, Treasure

  Arthur Symons (1906). “An Introduction to the Study of Browning”

  5 Copy quote

• He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue of style, perfect explicitness is not a necessary virtue.

  Arthur Symons

  Beauty, Perfect, Style

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  7 Copy quote

• I had my dreams of Venice, but nothing that I had dreamed was as impossible as what I found.

  Arthur Symons

  Dream, Venice, Impossible

  9 Copy quote

• I know the woman has no soul, I know The woman has no possibilities Of soul or mind or heart, but merely is The masterpiece of flesh: well, be it so. It is her flesh that I adore; I go Thirsting afresh to drain her empty kiss. I know she cannot love: it is not this My vanquished heart implores in overthrow. Tyrannously I crave, I crave alone, Her splendid body, Earth's most eloquent Music, divinest human harmony; Her body now a silent instrument, That 'neath my touch shall wake and make for me The strains I have but dreamed of, never known.

  Arthur Symons

  Women, Heart, Kissing

  Arthur Symons (1919). “Poems”

  5 Copy quote

• Here in a little lonely room I am master of earth and sea, And the planets come to me.

  Arthur Symons

  Lonely, Loneliness, Sea

  Arthur Symons, Roger Holdsworth (2003). “Arthur Symons: Selected Writings”, p.59, Psychology Press

  8 Copy quote

• The making of one's life into art is, after all, the first duty and privilege of every man.

  Arthur Symons

  Art, Men, Firsts

  Arthur Symons, Roger Holdsworth (2003). “Arthur Symons: Selected Writings”, p.86, Psychology Press

  5 Copy quote

• God, like all highest things, Hides light in shade, And in the night his visitings To sleep and dreams are clearliest made.

  Arthur Symons

  Dream, Sleep, Night

  Arthur Symons (1909). “Poems”

  6 Copy quote

• But we have been taught to see before our eyes have found out a way of seeing for themselves.

  Arthur Symons

  Eye, Vision, Way

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  4 Copy quote

• And I would have, now love is over, An end to all, an end: I cannot, having been your lover Stoop to become your friend!

  Arthur Symons

  Love, Ends, Stoops

  Arthur Symons (1919). “Poems”

  5 Copy quote

• Love is a flaming heart, and its flames aspire / Till they cloud the soul in the smoke of a windy fire.

  Arthur Symons

  Love, Heart, Fire

  Arthur Symons, Roger Holdsworth (2003). “Arthur Symons: Selected Writings”, p.57, Psychology Press

  7 Copy quote

• The gray-green stretch of sandy grass,Indefinitely desolate;A sea of lead, a sky of slate;Already autumn in the air, alas!One stark monotony of stone,The long hotel, acutely white,Against the after-sunset lightWithers gray-green, and takes the grass's tone.

  Arthur Symons

  Sunset, Autumn, Air

  7 Copy quote

• Hardly any one is able to see what is before him, just as it is in itself. He comes expecting one thing, he finds another thing, he sees through the veil of his preconception, he criticizes before he has apprehended, he condemns without allowing his instinct the chance of asserting itself.

  Arthur Symons

  Vision, Veils, Able

  Arthur Symons (1924). “The collected works of Arthur Symons”

  6 Copy quote

• All art is a form of artifice.For in art there can be no prejudices.

  Arthur Symons

  Art, Prejudice, Form

  "Silhouettes". Book by Arthur Symons, Preface to kindle ebook, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

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