Literature quotes
4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside literature — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships consist in. If the novelisthonours the relationship in itself, it will be a great novel."
"The novel is the highest form of human expression so far attained. Why? Because it is so incapable of the absolute."
"A particular ikon an aid to devotion may be itself a word of art, but that is logically accidental; its artistic merits will not make it a better ... ikon. They may make it a worse one."
"I did study Shakespeare, that was sort of my thing; I got a Literature A-level, which is my only claim to academic fame."
"Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts."
"I don't wish to be a slave any longer to the stringent exigencies of literature."
"Amazon is evil, like anything big, but we can't help if it flows the very center of literature."
"The want of an international Copy-Right Law, by rendering it nearly impossible to obtain anything from the booksellers in the wayof remuneration for literary labor, has had the effect of forcing many of our very best writers into the service of the Magazines and Reviews."
"Wishing of all employments is the worst"
"Procrastination is the thief of time: Year after year it steals, till all are fled."
"The weak have remedies, the wise have joys; superior wisdom is superior bliss."
"A man of pleasure is a man of pains."
"By all means use some time to be alone."
"They only babble who practise not reflection"
"God will finish what He authors, but He is not obligated to finish what He has not authored."
"Conscience allows us to do two things: Pass judgment on ourselves; approve or condemn our own conduct."
"You cannot be responsible for salvation until first you've been responsible for sin."
"You don't reward reaction; you reward results."
"Truth is life's most precious commodity."
"Men tend to feel threatened; women tend to feel guilty."
