Literature Quotes - Page 30

Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

I am only interested in bad taste if I can enjoy a gruesome tango or watch a movie that makes me cry.

Over the years, I've trained myself to speak using the same language I would use if I were typing: meaning using full sentences in the way that paragraphs and scenes are arranged.

If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land?

Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.

Small presses take chances. Chances are at the heart of all the literature we later know as great.

As much pleasure as young people get from Twittering and texting, there is no way these activities will nourish their minds and spirits the way literature can.

A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity he is continually informing and filling some other body.

The short story is the literature of the nomad.

I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature.

The planned sit-down reception is an artificial forum where one is presented with a limited number of persons with whom he can hold a conversation.

They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

In the ocean of baseness, the deeper we get, the easier the sinking.

Literature is the memory of humanity.

The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation; his friends, his pleasures, patrons, and acquaintances are his capital.

A man is a poor creature compared to a woman.

Whoever has trusted a woman has trusted deceivers.

Only the ideas that we really live have any value.

Friendships are discovered rather than made.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

This is the lesson that history teaches: repetition.

I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.

One does not set fire to a world which is already lost