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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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George Henry Lewes
Age: 61 †
Born: 1817
Born: April 18
Died: 1878
Died: November 30
Journalist
Literary Critic
Philosopher
Theatre Critic
Writer
London
England
Imagine
Phrases
Feelings
Bringing
Art
Symbols
Order
Reader
Seems
Thoughts
Many
Writer
Rhythmical
Writing
Seem
Intelligible
Mind
Fine
Placing

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A man may be buoyed up by the efflation of his wild desires to brave any imaginable peril but he cannot calmly see one he loves braving the same peril simply because he cannot feel within turn that which prompts another. He sees the danger, and feels not the power that is to overcome it.
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Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.
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In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.
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To one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezvous for lovers.
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To his [ Plato's ] great disappointment, he found Anaxagoras adducing simple physical reasons, instead of the teleological reasons, which he had expected. Such a teacher could no longer allure him.
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The air is crowded with birds -- beautiful, tender, intelligent birds -- to whom life is a song.
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If a work of art is placed before me, I believe I can enjoy it but I do not overlook the fact, that Art is one thing, another thing Amusement and that people do like amusements, and will run after it.
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Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.
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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.
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The public can only be really moved by what is genuine.
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Vehemence without feeling is but rant.
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Sincerity is moral truth.
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Bad acting, like bad writing, has a remarkable uniformity, whether seen on the French, German, or English stages it all seems modeled after two or three types, and those the least like types of good acting. The fault generally lies less in the bad imitation of a good model, than in the successful imitation of a bad model.
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I am suspicious without a motive, and jealous without love although I feel I ought to love since I desire to be loved.
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It will often be a question when a man is or is not wise in advancing unpalatable opinions, or in preaching heresies but it can never be a question that a man should be silent if unprepared to speak the truth as he conceives it.
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Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.
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Mathematicians do not write for the circulating library.
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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.
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.
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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.
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