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Oh you who are born of the blood of the gods, Trojan son of Anchises, easy is the descent to read more
Oh you who are born of the blood of the gods, Trojan son of Anchises, easy is the descent to Hell; the door of dark Dis stands open day and night. But to retrace your steps and come out to the air above, that is work, that is labor! - Aeneid, The.
When a man can observe himself suffering and is able, later, to describe what he's gone through, it means he read more
When a man can observe himself suffering and is able, later, to describe what he's gone through, it means he was born for literature.
Little do such men know the toil, the pains, the daily, nightly racking of the brains, to range the thoughts, read more
Little do such men know the toil, the pains, the daily, nightly racking of the brains, to range the thoughts, the matter to digest, to cull fit phrases, and reject the rest.
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
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.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its read more
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
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.
. . . A man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters
amongst men of read more
. . . A man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters
amongst men of the world.
You can't teach a hunter it's wrong to kill.
You can't teach a hunter it's wrong to kill.
