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The Good consists in the congruity of a thing with the laws of the reason and the nature of the will, and in its fitness to determine the latter to actualize the former: and it is always discursive. The Beautiful arises from the perceived harmony of an object, whether sight or sound, with the inborn and constitutive rules of the judgment and imagination: and it is always intuitive.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

More information about this quote

Topic

The good Beauty

Author

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Language

English

Time

1814 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "On the Principles of Genial Criticism Concerning the Fine Arts." Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. Bristol, Aug. and Sept. 1814.

Current Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Essays on the Principles of Genial Criticism." The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, vol. 11, pt. 1: Shorter Works and Fragments, edited by Kathleen Coburn. Princeton University Press, 2019.

With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!
How silently, and with how wan a face!

Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella

More information about this quote

Topic

The moon

Author

Philip Sidney

Source

Astrophel and Stella

Medium

Sonnet Poem

Language

English

Time

1591 1590s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sidney, Philip. Astrophel and Stella. London: Thomas Newman, 1591, sonnet 31.

Current Citation

Sidney, Philip. "Astrophil and Stella." Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works, edited by Katherine Duncan-Jones. Oxford University Press, 2009, sonnet 31.

Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.

Theodor Adorno

More information about this quote

Topic

Life under capitalism Capitalism

Author

Theodor Adorno

Source

The Meaning of Working Through the Past

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1959 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adorno, Theodor. Was bedeutet Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit [The Meaning of Working Through the Past]. 1959.

Literature is humanity talking to itself.

Norman Rush

Mortals

More information about this quote

Topic

Literature

Author

Norman Rush

Source

Mortals

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rush, Norman. Mortals. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth.

E.B. White

Quoted in Paris Review

More information about this quote

Topic

Children

Speaker

E.B. White

Source

Paris Review

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

White, E.B. "The Art of the Essay No. 1." Interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank H. Crowther. Paris Review, Fall 1969, www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4155/the-art-of-the-essay-no-1-e-b-white.

The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.

Edward Thomas

More information about this quote

Topic

Idealizing the past The past

Author

Edward Thomas

Source

Early One Morning

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Thomas, Edward. "Early One Morning." Poems. Henry Holt/Selwyn & Blount, 1917, I. 15.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

A.J. Liebling

The Wayward Press

Read this essay in the New Yorker

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom of the press Media Power Politics Media criticism

Author

A.J. Liebling

Source

The Wayward Press

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1960 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Liebling, A. J. "The Wayward Press: Do You Belong in Journalism?" The New Yorker, 7 May 1960.

I preach that there are all kinds of truth, your truth and somebody else's, but behind all of them there's only one truth and that is that there's no truth.

Flannery O'Connor

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of truth Truth

Speaker

Hazel Motes

Author

Flannery O'Connor

Source

Wise Blood

Medium

Novel

Genre

Southern Gothic

Language

English

Time

1952 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

O'Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1952, ch. 10.

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also—if this isn't too grand a word—our tragedy.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

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More information about this quote

Topic

Character Personal growth The human condition

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

I long ago come to the conclusions that all life is 6 to 5 against.

Damon Runyon

More information about this quote

Topic

The human condition

Author

Damon Runyon

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Runyon, Alfred Damon. "A Nice Price." Money From Home. Frederick A. Stokes, 1935.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

Read Trees at Poetry Foundation

More information about this quote

Topic

God and man Creativity Trees

Author

Joyce Kilmer

Source

Trees

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1913 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Kilmer, Joyce. "Trees." Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, 1913, I. 11.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

John Muir

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Read My First Summer in the Sierra at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Interconnectedness of all things Nature of the universe The universe

Author

John Muir

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Muir, John. Journal entry. 1869.

Current Citation

Muir, John. "My First Summer in the Sierra." John Muir: Nature Writings. Library of America, 1997, ch. 6.

All those who try to go it sole alone,
Too proud to be beholden for relief,
Are absolutely sure to come to grief.

Robert Frost

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-reliance Individualism

Author

Robert Frost

Source

Haec Fabula Docet

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Frost, Robert. "Haec Fabula Docet." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1946, I. 18.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.

Cormac McCarthy

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

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More information about this quote

Topic

The universe

Author

Cormac McCarthy

Source

Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West

Medium

Novel

Genre

Western literature

Language

English

Time

1985 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West. Random House, 1985, ch. 17.

I often want to cry. That is the only advantage women have over men-at least they can cry.

Jean Rhys

More information about this quote

Topic

Crying Men and women Masculinity

Author

Jean Rhys

Source

Good Morning, Midnight

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Rhys, Jean. Good Morning, Midnight. Constable Press, 1939.

Current Citation

Rhys, Jean. Good Morning, Midnight. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Matthew Arnold

More information about this quote

Topic

Writing

Speaker

Matthew Arnold

Source

Collections and Recollections

Statement Type

Writing advice

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Arnold, Matthew. Quoted in Collections and Recollections, written by G. W. E. Russell. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898, ch. 14. Originally stated to Russell by Arnold c. 1890.

Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

William Cowper

Retirement

More information about this quote

Topic

Idleness

Author

William Cowper

Source

Retirement Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq.

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1782 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cowper, William. "Retirement." Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. London: J. Johnson, 1782.

One was never married, and that's his hell; another is, and that's his plague.

Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

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Read The Anatomy of Melancholy at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Marriage

Author

Robert Burton

Source

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1621 1620s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Oxford: Henry Cripps, 1621, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Holbrook Jackson. New York Review Books, 2001, pt. 1.

Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,
A mechanized automation.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Queen Mab

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Read Queen Mab at marxists.org

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature of power Power relations Power

Author

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Source

Queen Mab

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1813 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes. London, 1813, pt. 3.

Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Queen Mab." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 3.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.

Roald Dahl

The Witches

More information about this quote

Topic

Feeling loved Love

Author

Roald Dahl

Source

The Witches

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature

Language

English

Time

1983 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dahl, Roald. The Witches. Jonathan Cape, 1983.