54 quotes
The only cure for grief is action.
The Spanish Drama (1846)
No deeply-rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse argument. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic.
The Foundations of a Creed (1874)
If clear Vision be indispensable to success in Art, all means of securing that clearness should be sought.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
The intensity of vision in the artist and of vividness in his creations are the sole tests of his imaginative power.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
It is only because men have been attracted by the differences that they have overlooked the not less important affinities.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
No man really thinks and feels monotonously.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
The discoverer and the poet are inventors; and they are so because their mental vision detects the unapparent, unsuspected facts, almost as vividly as ocular vision rests on the apparent and familiar.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Deference to popular opinion is one great source of bad writing, and is all the more disastrous because the deference is paid to some purely hypothetical requirement.
It is visible in the publication of opinions, in the structure of sentences, and in the fidelity of citations.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
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.
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science (1864)
The opinion of the majority is not lightly to be rejected; but neither is it to be carelessly echoed.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
There are many points both of doctrine and feeling in which the world is not likely to be wrong. But in all cases it is desirable that men should not pretend to believe opinions which they really reject, or express emotions they do not feel.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
The spontaneous tendency to invoke a Final Cause in explanation of every difficulty is characteristic of metaphysical philosophy. It arises from a general tendency towards the impersonation of abstractions which is visible throughout History.
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science (1864)
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 Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
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.
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science (1864)
The greatest artist is he who is greatest in the highest reaches of his art, even although he may lack the qualities necessary for the adequate execution of some minor details. It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man.
Why should I pretend to an erudition which is not mine? Sincerity forbids it.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress. It deepens our natural sensibilities, and strengthens by exercise our intellectual capacities.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
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.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Instead, therefore, of saying that Man is the creature of Circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that Man is the architect of Circumstance. It is Character which builds an existence out of Circumstance.