"Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of the critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."
Literature quotes
Literature
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Literature quotes (page 45 of 201)
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"Having achieved and accomplished love, then the man passes into the unknown. He has become himself, his tale is told."
"The true artist doesn't substitute immorality for morality. On the contrary, he always substitutes a finer morality for a grosser one."
"Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism - and wars."
"In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself."
"It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one."
"Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people."
"Tomorrow is a satire on today, And shows its weakness."
"Read nature; nature is a friend to truth."
"Peace is the umpire for doing the will of God."
"Life is lived on levels and arrived at in stages."
"Trust funds can never be a substitute for a fund of trust."
"Good is often the enemy of best."
"The Ten Commandments have never been replaced as the moral basis upon which society rests."
"Pessimist: One who has been intimately acquainted with an Optimist."
"I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair."
"Housework, if you do it right, will kill you."
"I was terrible at straight items. When I wrote obituaries, my mother said the only thing I ever got them to do was die in alphabetical order."
"House guests should be regarded as perishables: Leave them out too long and they go bad."
"Pound's crazy. All poets are.... They have to be. You don't put a poet like Pound in the loony bin."