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The reader, turning the pages of this book, will find this note of valiancy—of the old Roman ‘virtue’ mated with cheerfulness—dominant throughout, if in many curious moods. He may trace it back, if he care, far behind Chaucer to the rudest beginnings of English Song. It Is indigenous, proper to our native spirit, and it will endure.

— Arthur Quiller-Couch

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More quotes by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

All the old statues of Victory have wings: but Grief has no wings. She is the unwelcome lodger that squats on the hearthstone between us and the fire and will not move or be dislodged.

O pastoral heart of England! like a psalm
Of green days telling with a quiet beat.

Not as we wanted it,
But as God granted it.

Only the heel
Of splendid steel
Shall stand secure on sliding fate,
When golden navies weep their freight.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Arthur Quiller-Couch (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.