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Quotes from The Principles of Success in Literature — George Henry Lewes

1817–1878 England

← All quotes by George Henry Lewes

28 quotes

There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

In the development of the great series of animal organisms, the Nervous System assumes more and more of an imperial character.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

Genius is rarely able to give any account of its own processes.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

In Science the paramount appeal is to the Intellect — its purpose being instruction; in Art, the paramount appeal is to the Emotions — its purpose being pleasure.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

There are many justifications of silence; there can be none of insincerity.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

Philosophy and Art both render the invisible visible by imagination.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

A work is imaginative in virtue of the power of its images over our emotions; not in virtue of any rarity or surprisingness in the images themselves.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Simplicity of structure means organic unity, whether the organism be simple or complex; and hence in all times the emphasis which critics have laid upon Simplicity, though they have not unfrequently confounded it with narrowness of range.

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: George Henry Lewes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.