Great Literature Quotes - Page 2

• America is the only nation in the world that is founded on creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  America, Independence, Pieces

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• Great literature must spring from an upheaval in the author's soul. If that upheaval is not present then it must come from the works of any other author which happens to be handy and easily adapted.

  Robert Benchley

  Spring, Writing, Soul

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• Leisure, itself the creation of wealth, is incessantly engaged in transmuting wealth into beauty by secreting the surplus energy which flowers in great architecture, great painting and great literature. Only in the atmosphere thus engendered floats that impalpable dust of ideas which is the real culture. A colony of ants or bees will never create a Parthenon.

  Edith Wharton

  Real, Flower, Dust

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• Have no regrets. Every relationship leads you to where you're meant to be. Learn to be comfortable with being alone. Learn to be comfortable with saying no to people; we put everybody else before ourselves. Read great literature; don't get all your information from TV. Define your moral code - nobody else is going to give you that. Find it yourself. Keep asking questions, keep challenging. You don't have to conform. Rebellion creates character. And, as my mother always said to me, "Don't let anyone break your spirit!"

  Nicole Kidman

  Mother, Regret, Character

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Freedom Of Speech, Guarantees, Literature

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Great literature rattles the mind and makes the body sing. It's an unmistakable, electric feeling, and too rare. That is what I want.

  C.E. Morgan

  Feelings, Mind, Literature

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

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• [Bob Dylan] is principally a recording artist, and if he weren't, it is unthinkable he would have had such an impact. He is to be heard first and read second. Well, what about plays, you could reasonably ask. Is [William] Shakespeare not great literature? Yes, obviously: but his work is great literature even to those who have never known it performed. The same is evidently not true of Dylan.

  David Bennun

  Artist, Impact, Play

  Source: thequietus.com

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• Literature is the adventure. It's the story, it's the fight, it's people falling in love, it's people with deep personality disorders who succeed anyway beyond themselves. That's what great literature is.

  Walter Mosley

  Falling In Love, Adventure, Fighting

  Source: bigthink.com

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• I was enthralled and moved by Azar Nafisi's account of how she defied,
  and helped others to defy, radical Islam's war against women.
  Her memoir contains important and properly complex reflections
  about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulness, and about the
  ordeals of freedom-as well as a stirring account of the pleasures and
  deepening of consciousness that result from an encounter with great
  literature and with an inspired teacher.

  Susan Sontag

  Teacher, War, Reflection

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• Oldboy makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. It's a grand, gritty, indelible experience, the sort of picture that mimics great literature in the way it envelops you in a well-told story while also evoking subtle but strong gradations of emotion.

  Stephanie Zacharek

  Strong, Stories, Literature

  "Thunder Out of Korea". www.salon.com. March 26, 2005.

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• in a sense much great literature is subversive, since its very existence implies that what matters is art, imagination, and truth. In what we call the real world, on the other hand, what usually counts is money, power, and public success.

  Alison Lurie

  Art, Real, What Matters

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• The most exciting periods of literature have always been those when the critics were great.

  Doris Lessing

  Literature, Periods, Exciting

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• No one bothered reading the books and understanding - and again, I'm not being high-falutin' about it - but I think our books are great literature with great metaphors of real life dealing with fears and hopes.

  Avi Arad

  Real, Book, Reading

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• What’s strange is how many beginning writers seem to think that grammar is irrelevant, or that they are somehow above or beyond this subject more fit for a schoolchild than the future author of great literature.

  Francine Prose

  Thinking, Literature, Strange

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• A great literature is thus chiefly the product of doubting and inquiring minds in revolt against the immovable certainties of the nation.

  H. L. Mencken

  Mind, Literature, Inquiring

  "Prejudices Second Series".

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• Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

  A. E. Housman

  Stupid, Personal Opinions, Perception

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.151, Delphi Classics

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• I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature.

  John Berryman

  Bored, Literature, Resources

  John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.16, Macmillan

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• Besides," he said breezily, "were it not for misunderstandings, we would be sadly lacking in great literature." She looked at him questioningly. "Where would Romeo and Juliet be?" "Alive.

  Julia Quinn

  Would Be, Alive, Literature

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• A people may become great through many means, but there is only one measure by which its greatness is recognized and acknowledged. The final measure of the greatness of all peoples is the amount and standard of the literature and art they have produced.... No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior.

  James Weldon Johnson

  Art, Mean, Greatness

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• I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did.

  Julie Walters

  People, Literature, Actresses

  "Still Walters" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. May 11, 2002.

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• The myth that everyone once read great literature is just a myth.

  Margaret Atwood

  Literature, Myth

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• I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences.

  Harvey Pekar

  Thinking, Elements, Literature

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Great literature is like moral leadership; everyone deplores the lack of it, but there is a tendency to prefer it from the safely dead.

  Shirley Hazzard

  Leadership, Literature, Moral

  Shirley Hazzard (2016). “We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think: Selected Essays”, p.67, Columbia University Press

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• Great literature transcends its native land, but none that I know of ignores its soil.

  J. Frank Dobie

  Land, Literature, Soil

  J. Frank Dobie (2010). “Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest”, p.7, University of Texas Press

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• The idea behind a dish - the delight and the surprise - makes a difference. Great literature surprises and delights, and provokes us. It isn't just 'Here's the facts - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.' It's how you tell it.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Girl, Boys, Ideas

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