Literature Quotes - Page 8

• A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride.

  Max Lerner

  Enemy, President, Stride

  Max Lerner (1959). “The unfinished country: a book of American symbols”

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• What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.

  John Cheever

  Writing, Nuclear, Roles

  "Home before Dark". Book by Susan Cheever, 1984.

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• Before college, I hadn't voluntarily read anything that might be called literature; I didn't think I'd understand it; I never seemed to understand my English teacher's interpretations of what we read.

  Melissa Bank

  Teacher, College, Thinking

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• Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to turn it, even slightly.

  Dan Rather

  Moving, One Direction, Herds

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• It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever. It is also reasonable to assume that practically nothing that is read now will be read later.

  Gore Vidal

  Assuming, Reasonable

  Gore Vidal (1982). “Pink triangle and yellow star, and other essays (1976-1982)”

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• Writers who teach tend to prefer literary theory to literature and tenure to all else. Writers who do not teach prefer the contemplation of Careers to art of any kind.

  Gore Vidal

  Art, Writing, Literary Theory

  Gore Vidal (1991). “A view from the diners club: essays 1987-1991”

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• There's a lot to be said for being nouveau riche, and the Reagans mean to say it all.

  Gore Vidal

  Mean, Nouveau Riche, Said

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• What is music. A passion for colonies not a love of country.

  Gertrude Stein

  Country, Passion, Colony

  Gertrude Stein (1955). “Painted lace: and other pieces, 1914-1937”

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• I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

  Anne Tyler

  Writing, Thinking, Superstitions

  Penguin Random House interview, www.penguinrandomhouse.com.

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• Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people.

  Anne Tyler

  Thinking, People, Finals

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• My writing day has grown shorter as I've aged, although it seems to produce the same number of pages.

  Anne Tyler

  Writing, Numbers, Pages

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• The spectacles of experience; through them you will see more clearly a second time.

  Henrik Ibsen

  Spectacles

  "The League of Youth and Pillars of Society".

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• To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also.

  John Ruskin

  Giving, Alms

  John Ruskin (2015). “Lectures on Architecture and Painting”, p.66, John Ruskin

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• Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity.

  Rebecca West

  Unity, Analysis, Synthesis

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• A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch. Hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which always remains highly valued, as salt does, and never becomes stupid like salt.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Stupid, Teeth, Doe

  Friedrich Nietzsche; (2016). “Human, All Too Human”, p.51, Xist Publishing

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• Food-addiction, or food-drunkenness, is an old story in Hygienic literature. This is the first mention I have seen of it in "regular" medical literature. I fear to hope that its recognition spells progress.

  Herbert M. Shelton

  Health, Addiction, Progress

  Herbert M. Shelton (1993). “Getting Well”, p.219, Health Research Books

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• People who rarely read long books, or even short stories, still appreciate the greatest examples of the shortest literary genres. I have long been fascinated by these short genres. They seem to lie just where my heart is, somewhere between literature and philosophy.

  Gary Saul Morson

  Philosophy, Lying, Book

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• A knowledge of general literature is one of the evidences of an enlightened mind; and to give an apt quotation at a fitting time, proves that the mind is stored with sentential lore that can always be used to great advantage by its possessor.

  James Ellis

  Giving, Mind, Enlightened

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• Life without literary studies is death.

  Seneca the Younger

  Study

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• In literature, there are only oxen. The biggest ones are the geniuses-the ones who toil eighteen hours a day without tiring.

  Jules Renard

  Writing, Oxen, Toil

  Jules Renard (1964). “The journal of Jules Renard”

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• Right is its own defense.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Defense

  Bertolt Brecht (1966). “Jungle of cities: and other plays”, Grove Pr

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• I grew up in an non-athletic family, where my parents were interested in music, in literature, in education and art.

  Bill Walton

  Art, Parent, Athletic

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• It strikes me as somewhat odd that the people who use God's name most frequently, both in life and in literature, usually don't believe in him.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  God, Believe, Names

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “A Circle of Quiet”, p.91, Open Road Media

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• The businessman who is a novelist is able to drop in on literature and feel no suicidal loss of esteem if the lady is not at home, and he can spend his life preparing without fuss for the awful interview.

  V. S. Pritchett

  Home, Writing, Suicidal

  V.S. Pritchett (2011). “The Living Novel”, p.115, A&C Black

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• The Lord grant we may all be tillers of the soil.

  Nikolai Gogol

  May, Soil, Lord

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