Marguerite Young
Author
"Some of the poetic writers who insert passages of realism in their texts have no underlying philosophy to uphold them, and revert to realism."
Realism quotes
Realism
67 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Writer, Journalist
"Realism is simply Romanticism that has lost its reason...that is its reason for existing."
Samuel Beckett
Playwright, Novelist
"Reality, whether approached imaginatively or empirically, remains a surface, hermetic."
Bette Davis
Actress
"Hollywood always wanted me to be pretty, but I fought for realism."
Samuel Beckett
Playwright, Novelist
"Watt's concern, deep as it appeared, was not after all what the figure was, in reality, but with what the figure appeared to be, in reality."
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Topics related to Realism
Browse quotes that often appear alongside realism — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Realism quotes (page 1 of 4)
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"You have to start somewhere. You can always erase reality later on."
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"Idealism leads to realism if it is strictly thought out."
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"One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf."
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"Realism is a corruption of reality."
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"Realism is in the work when idealism is in the soul, and it is only through idealism that we resume contact with reality."
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"A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be."
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"You achieve the surreal jokes through the realism by making it elastic."
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"a likeness different from the products of the God-fearing photographer."
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"Realism has always been called cynicism."
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"If Realism called it like it saw it, Metafiction simply called it as it saw itself seeing itself see it."
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"Realism is punishing. Probabilistic skepticism is worse."
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"Our safety is not in blindness, but in facing our dangers."
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"Realism and art cannot live together."
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"I try to get a degree of realism in my music."
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