Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to read more

Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it.

Just as it is true that a stream cannot rise above its source, so it is true that a national read more

Just as it is true that a stream cannot rise above its source, so it is true that a national literature cannot rise above the moral level of the social conditions of the people from whom it derives its inspiration.

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.

The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.

The essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything.

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.

Poetry is life distilled.

Poetry is life distilled.

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.

The republic of letters.
[Fr., La republique des lettres.]

The republic of letters.
[Fr., La republique des lettres.]

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the read more

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.