Quote

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.

George Henry Lewes

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George Henry Lewes
Age: 61 †
Born: 1817
Born: April 18
Died: 1878
Died: November 30
Journalist
Literary Critic
Philosopher
Theatre Critic
Writer
London
England
Artist
Uses
Homely
Without
Precisely
Elevated
Great
Phrases
Suggestion
Tells
Selective
Ornate
Instinct
Suggestions
Imperceptible
Writer
Distinguished
Grandest
Language
Simplest
Blending
Use
Plain
Triviality

More quotes by George Henry Lewes

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In the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the earth we tread on, Life is every where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with Life every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle.
George Henry Lewes
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Roger Bacon, a disciple of the Arabs, also insisted on the primary necessity of Mathematics, without which no other science can be known yet by Mathematics it is clear that he meant something very different from what we mean, including under that head even dancing, singing, gesticulation, and performance on musical instruments.
George Henry Lewes
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A cell is regarded as the true biological atom.
George Henry Lewes
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The art of writing is not, as many seem to imagine, the art of bringing fine phrases into rhythmical order, but the art of placing before the reader intelligible symbols of the thoughts and feelings in the writer's mind.
George Henry Lewes
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To love is for the Soul to choose a companion, and travel with it along the perilous defiles and winding ways of life mutually sustaining, when it is rugged with obstructions, and mutually rejoicing, when rich broad plains and sunny slopes make journeying delight.
George Henry Lewes
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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.
George Henry Lewes
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All good Literature rests primarily on insight.
George Henry Lewes
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The separation of Science from Knowledge was effected step by step as the Subjective Method was replaced by the Objective Method: i.e., when in each inquiry the phenomena of external nature ceased to be interpreted on premisses suggested by the analogies of human nature.
George Henry Lewes
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The air is crowded with birds -- beautiful, tender, intelligent birds -- to whom life is a song.
George Henry Lewes
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Good writers are of necessity rare.
George Henry Lewes
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It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.
George Henry Lewes
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Sincerity is moral truth.
George Henry Lewes
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Science is not addressed to poets.
George Henry Lewes
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It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.
George Henry Lewes
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No deeply rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse judgment. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic.
George Henry Lewes
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Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
George Henry Lewes
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Vehemence without feeling is but rant.
George Henry Lewes
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Remember that every drop of rain that falls bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of beautiful fertility.
George Henry Lewes
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The great desire of this age is for a doctrine which may serve to condense our knowledge, guide our researches, and shape our lives, so that conduct may really be the consequence of belief
George Henry Lewes
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Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.
George Henry Lewes