Literature

Explore 13 quotes about Literature

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Topic

Interpretation and analysis Literature

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Medium

Novel

Genre

Children's literature Adventure novel

Statement Type

Warning

Language

English

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. London: Chatto & Windus, 1884, notice.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, edited by R. Kent Rasmussen. Penguin Classics, 2014, notice.

Prose is for ideas,
Verse is for visions.

Henrik Ibsen

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Topic

Literature Poetry

Author

Henrik Ibsen

Source

Rhyme Letter for Fru Heidberg

Medium

Poem

Language

Norwegian

Time

1871 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Ibsen, Henry. "Rimbrev til Fru Heiberg [Rhyme letter to Mrs. Heiberg]." Digte. Copenhagen, 1871.

That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Literature

Speaker

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Language

English

Time

1938 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Quoted in Beloved Infidel: The Education of a Woman, written by Sheilah Graham and Gerold Frank. Henry Holt, 1958, ch. 22.

Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become, in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of words Power of literature Literature Writing

Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Source

Journals of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1848 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Journal entry. 18 May 1848.

Facts are slippery. The truth is imperfect. Fiction recognizes that.

Salman Rushdie

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Topic

Truth vs. fiction Truth Literature

Speaker

Salman Rushdie

Source

Harvard Business Review

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

2015 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rushdie, Salman. Interviewed by Alison Beard. Harvard Business Review, Sept. 2015.

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

G.K. Chesterton

More information about this quote

Topic

Literature Fiction Stories

Author

G.K. Chesterton

Source

A Defense of Penny-Dreadfuls The Defendant

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1901 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Chesterton, G.K. "The Defendant." The Wit, Whimsy and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton. Vol. 6, Coachwhip Publications, 2009. Originally published by R. Brinley Johnson, 1901.

Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.

Jhumpa Lahiri

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Topic

Power of words Power of literature Literature Writing

Author

Jhumpa Lahiri

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2012 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lahiri, Jhumpa. "My Life's Sentences." Opinionator (blog). New York Times, 17 Mar. 2012, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/my-lifes-sentences.

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

Fernando Pessoa

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Topic

Literature

Author

Fernando Pessoa

Source

The Book of Disquiet

Language

Portuguese

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Pessoa, Fernando (published as Bernardo Soares). Livro do Desassossego [The Book of Disquiet]. Attica, 1982.

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.

Once literature is contrived as the hymn of the nation, the flag of the race, the mouthpiece of a political party or the voice of a class or a group it can be employed as a mighty and all-engulfing tool of propaganda. However, such literature loses what is inherent in literature, ceases to be literature, and becomes a substitute for power and profit.

Gao Xingjian

The Case for Literature

Read this speech at nobelprize.org

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Topic

Literature

Speaker

Gao Xingjian

Source

The Case for Literature

Medium

Nobel Prize Lecture Speech

Language

Chinese

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Gao Xingjian. "The Case for Literature." Nobel Lecture. 7 Dec. 2000, Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.

A novel is an impression, not an argument.

Thomas Hardy

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

More information about this quote

Topic

Novels Literature Books

Author

Thomas Hardy

Source

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1891 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892, preface.

Current Citation

Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, edited by Scott Elledge. W. W. Norton & Company, 1990, preface.

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

Salman Rushdie

More information about this quote

Topic

Literature

Speaker

Salman Rushdie

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1990 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rushdie, Salman. "Is Nothing Sacred?" Presented by Harold Pinter. 6 Feb. 1990, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, UK. Lecture.

For the creation of a master-work of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the moment.

Matthew Arnold

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Topic

Literature

Author

Matthew Arnold

Language

English

Time

1865 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time." Essays in Criticism: First Series. London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1865.

Current Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time." Culture and Anarchy and Other Selected Prose. Penguin Classics, 2015.