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There are dons who care for the intellect and the imagination, and there are priests who care for the spirit; but broadly speaking the function of universities and churches alike is to trim and tame enthusiasm, to suppress curiosity, and, in short, to whittle immortal souls into serviceable props of the established order.

— Hugh Kingsmill The Progress of a Biographer (1949)

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More quotes by Hugh Kingsmill

The public mind [is] a cloudy region where only the simplest shapes are discerned with any accuracy.

The Progress of a Biographer (1949)

Charity may cover a multitude of sins, but success transmutes them into virtues.

The Progress of a Biographer (1949)

Hamlet is egotism as it appears to itself, and Don Quixote is egotism as it appears to the detached observer.

The Progress of a Biographer (1949)

Society is based on the assumption that everyone is alike and that no one is alive.

Skye High (1937)

Ideas get substance and value not by being discussed but by being lived.

The Progress of a Biographer (1949)

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