George Henry Lewes Quotes

The Moral Nature Of Man Is More Sacred In My Eyes Than His Intellectual Nature. I Know They Cannot Be Divorced - That Without Intelligence We Should Be Brutes - But It Is The Tendency Of Our Gaping, Wondering Dispositions To Give Pre-eminence To Those Faculties Which Most Astonish Us. Strength Of Character Seldom, If Ever, Astonishes; Goodness, Lovingness, And Quiet Self-sacrifice, Are Worth All The Talents In The World.

The Selective Instinct Of The Artist Tells Him When His Language Should Be Homely, And When It Should Be More Elevated; And It Is Precisely In The Imperceptible Blending Of The Plain With The Ornate That A Great Writer Is Distinguished. He Uses The Simplest Phrases Without Triviality, And The Grandest Without A Suggestion Of Grandiloquence.

In Science The Paramount Appeal Is To The Intellect-its Purpose Being Instruction; In Art, The Paramount Appeal Is To The Emotions-its Purpose Being Pleasure.

To Write Much, And To Write Rapidly, Are Empty Boasts. The World Desires To Know What You Have Done, And Not How You Did It.

No Man Was Ever Eloquent By Trying To Be Eloquent, But Only By Being So.

Heart And Brain Are The Two Lords Of Life. In The Metaphors Of Ordinary Speech And In The Stricter Language Of Science, We Use These Terms To Indicate Two Central Powers, From Which All Motives Radiate, To Which All Influences Converge.

A Man Must Be Himself Convinced If He Is To Convince Others. The Prophet Must Be His Own Disciple, Or He Will Make None. Enthusiasm Is Contagious: Belief Creates Belief.

The Prosperity Of A Book Lies In The Minds Of Readers. Public Knowledge And Public Taste Fluctuate; And There Come Times When Works Which Were Once Capable Of Instructing And Delighting Thousands Lose Their Power, And Works, Before Neglected, Emerge Into Renown.

Over The Meeting Of The Lovers I Draw A Veil. The Burst Of Rapture With Which They Clasped Each Other In A Wild Embrace -- The Many Inquiries -- The Fond Regrets And Thrilling Hopes -- It Is Out Of My Power To Convey. Let Me, Therefore, Leave Them To Their Happiness.

Except In The Rare Cases Of Great Dynamic Thinkers Whose Thoughts Are As Turning-points In The History Of Our Race, It Is By Style That Writers Gain Distinction, By Style They Secure Their Immortality.

It Is Always Understood As An Expression Of Condemnation When Anything In Literature Or Art Is Said To Be Done For Effect; And Yet To Produce An Effect Is The Aim And End Of Both.

Roger_bacon" Title="roger Bacon">roger Bacon Expressed A Feeling Which Afterwards Moved Many Minds, When He Said That If He Had The Power He Would Burn All The Works Of The Stagirite, Since The Study Of Them Was Not Simply Loss Of Time, But Multiplication Of Ignorance. Yet In Spite Of This Outbreak Every Page Is Studded With Citations From Aristotle, Of Whom He Everywhere Speaks In The Highest Admiration.