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What holy cities are to nomadic tribes — a symbol of race and a bond of union — great books are to the wandering souls of men: they are the Meccas of the mind.

George Edward Woodberry

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George Edward Woodberry
Age: 74 †
Born: 1855
Born: May 12
Died: 1930
Died: January 2
Biographer
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
the United States of America
George E. Woodberry
Soul
Symbols
Book
Union
Nomadic
Great
Unions
Mecca
Mind
Souls
Wandering
Men
Holy
Tribes
Cities
Symbol
Books
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Race
Wander

More quotes by George Edward Woodberry

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A marvellous power of expression over language often distinguishes genius but Shakespeare in his phrases seems independent of the bonds of language as of the bonds of metre.
George Edward Woodberry
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The critic is genius at one remove he is not unlike an actor on the stage, and incarnates in his mind, as the actor embodies in his person, another's work only thus does he understand art, realize it, know it and having arrived at this, his task is done.
George Edward Woodberry
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The willingness to take risks is our grasp of faith.
George Edward Woodberry
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You must find the ideas that have some promise in them... It is not enough to just have ideas.
George Edward Woodberry
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Education has really only one basic factor: one must want it.
George Edward Woodberry
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The Greeks, those originators of the intellectual life, fixed for us the idea of the poet. He was a divine man more sacred than the priest, who was at best an intermediary between men and the gods, but in the poet the god was present and spoke.
George Edward Woodberry
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If the aristocracy of the whole white race is so to melt in a world of the colored races of the Earth, I for one should only rejoice in such a divine triumph of the sacrificial idea in history for it would mean the humanization of mankind.
George Edward Woodberry
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Thrashing is not the most noticeably awful of disappointments. Not to have attempted is the genuine disappointment.
George Edward Woodberry
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My first recollection of hearing Wendell Phillips is from my college days, though of course he was always one of my heroes, and I may have heard him before, for we were an anti-slavery family.
George Edward Woodberry
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Mankind is the grandest and surest artist of all, and history as it clarifies is, in pure fact, an artistic process, a creation in its fullness of the beautiful soul.
George Edward Woodberry
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Art is expression what is expressed is often the vision of a subtle and powerful soul, and also his experience with his vision and however vivid and skilful he may be in the means of expression, yet it is frequently found that the master-spell in his work is something felt to be indefinable and inexpressible.
George Edward Woodberry
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Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
George Edward Woodberry
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What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space!
George Edward Woodberry
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Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First Corollary If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.
George Edward Woodberry
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I believe that ideal character in its perfection is potentially in every man who is born into the world.
George Edward Woodberry
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The poet craves emotion, and feeds the fire that consumes him, and only under this condition is he baptized with creative power.
George Edward Woodberry
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Agitation is that part of our intellectual life where vitality results there ideas are born, breed and bring forth.
George Edward Woodberry
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The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit the schools of painting and sculpture likewise and, in poetry, the Victorian age or the school of Pope will serve as examples.
George Edward Woodberry
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Shakespeare is, essentially, the emanation of the Renaissance. The overflow of his fame on the Continent in later years was but the sequel of the flood of the Renaissance in Western Europe. He was the child of that great movement, and marks its height as it penetrated the North with civilization.
George Edward Woodberry
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You may name a bronze statue 'Liberty,' or a painted figure in a city hall 'Commerce,' or a marble form in a temple 'Athene' or 'Venus' but what is really there is only a representation of a single woman.
George Edward Woodberry