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Learning why one great book is just like every other great book is the key to understanding literature
Learning why one great book is just like every other great book is the key to understanding literature
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.
In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the read more
In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write? - Nobel Lecture 2000.
Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation.
Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation.
People do not deserve to have good writings; they are so pleased with bad.
People do not deserve to have good writings; they are so pleased with bad.
They castrate the books of other men in order that with the fat of their works they may lard their read more
They castrate the books of other men in order that with the fat of their works they may lard their own lean volumes.
Beneath the rule of men entirely great, / The pen is mightier than the sword.
Beneath the rule of men entirely great, / The pen is mightier than the sword.
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious
men who are deprived of honours or of read more
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious
men who are deprived of honours or of wealth.
Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.
Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.
