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Novels by serious writers of genius often eventually become best-sellers, but most contemporary best-sellers are written by second-class writers whose psychological brew contains a touch of naïvety, a touch of sentimentality, the story-telling gift, and a mysterious sympathy with the day-dreams of ordinary people.

— Leonard Woolf Downhill All the Way (1967)

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More quotes by Leonard Woolf

Nothing matters, and everything matters.

Anyone can be a barbarian; it requires a terrible effort to be or remain a civilized man.

Barbarians Within and Without (1939)

There is nothing to which men cling more tenaciously than to their class privileges and vested interests except perhaps to their illusions.

No people has ever despised and distrusted the intellect and intellectuals more than the British.

There is always some contempt in pity. One pities poor old Oedipus, but one doesn't pity Job.

The Wise Virgins (1914)

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