Quote

The mathematician who is without value to mathematicians, the thinker who is obscure or meaningless to thinkers, the dramatist who fails to move the pit, may be wise, may be eminent, but as an author he has failed.

George Henry Lewes

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

George Henry Lewes
Age: 61 †
Born: 1817
Born: April 18
Died: 1878
Died: November 30
Journalist
Literary Critic
Philosopher
Theatre Critic
Writer
London
England
Without
Failed
Thinkers
Failing
Pits
Value
Mathematician
Move
Fails
Wise
Obscure
Values
Thinker
Dramatist
Moving
Meaningless
Eminent
May
Author
Mathematicians

More quotes by George Henry Lewes

Image
In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
The history of the race is but that of the individual writ large.
George Henry Lewes
Image
Literature delivers tidings of the world within and the world without.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
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.
George Henry Lewes
Image
Pliny... makes the statement, and for untrustworthiness of statement he cannot easily be surpassed.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Shakespeare is a good raft whereon to float securely down the stream of time fasten yourself to that and your immortality is safe.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
Individual experiences being limited and individual spontaneity feeble, we are strengthened and enriched by assimilating the experience of others.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
I am suspicious without a motive, and jealous without love although I feel I ought to love since I desire to be loved.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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.
George Henry Lewes
Image
To one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezvous for lovers.
George Henry Lewes
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The air is crowded with birds -- beautiful, tender, intelligent birds -- to whom life is a song.
George Henry Lewes
Image
Those works alone can have enduring success which successfully appeal to what is permanent in human nature -- which, while suiting the taste of the day, contain truths and beauty deeper than the opinions and tastes of the day.
George Henry Lewes