English Literature Quotes

• English literature is a kind of training in social ethics. English trains you to handle a body of information in a way that is conducive to action.

  Marilyn Butler

  Creativity, Training, Literature

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• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

  Charles Dickens

  Inspirational, Time, Cities

  A Tale of Two Cities bk. 1, ch. 1 (1859)

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• English literature is a glorious inheritance which is open to all - there are no barriers, no coupons, and no restrictions. In the English language and in its great writers there are great riches and treasures, of which, of course, the Bible and Shakespeare stand along on the highest platform.

  Winston Churchill

  Inheritance, Literature, Treasure

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• It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

  Jane Austen

  Inspirational, Funny, Relationship

  Pride and Prejudice ch. 1 (1813)

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• Develop an Interest in Life as you see it.

  Henry Miller

  Passion, Interest In Life, Beautiful Soul

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• For this reason, to study English literature without some general knowledge of the relation of the Bible to that literature would be to leave one's literary education very incomplete.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Would Be, Literature, Study

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.105, tredition

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• What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Sweet, Flower

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 2, sc. 2, l. 43

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• Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

  Henry Miller

  Music, Beauty, Beautiful

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• I'd probably want to teach at university, because children would drive me insane. I suspect it would be English literature, Shakespeare and so forth. I've always been deeply, deeply in love with that kind of thing.

  Stephen Fry

  Children, Insane, Would Be

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• It is no exaggeration to say that the English Bible is, next to Shakespeare, the greatest work in English literature, and that it will have much more influence than even Shakespeare upon the written and spoken language of the English race.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Race, Literature, Next

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.105, tredition

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• In my teens, I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more, so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.

  Trevor Nunn

  Teacher, Passionate, Teens

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• I often imagine that the longer he studies English literature the more the Japanese student must be astonished at the extraordinary predominance given to the passion of love both in fiction and in poetry.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Passion, Fiction, Literature

  Lafcadio Hearn (2012). “Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn”, p.23, tredition

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• I studied English literature; I took 2 independent religion classes, but I wasn't a religion major really.

  Maggie Gyllenhaal

  Independent, Class, Literature

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• When I entered college, it was to study liberal arts. At the University of Pennsylvania, I studied English literature, but I fell in love with broadcasting, with telling stories about other people's exploits.

  Andrea Mitchell

  Art, College, People

  Andrea Mitchell (2006). “Talking Back: To Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels”, p.5, Penguin

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• I have preferred to teach my students not English literature but my love for certain authors, or, even better, certain pages, or even better than that, certain lines. One falls in love with a line, then with a page, then with an author. Well, why not? It is a beautiful process.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Beautiful, Falling In Love, Why Not

  Jorge Luis Borges (2013). “Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature”, p.259, New Directions Publishing

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• English literature is a flying fish.

  E. M. Forster

  Fishing, Flying, Literature

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• The English tourist in American literature wants above all things something different from what he has at home. For this reason the one American writer whom the English whole-heartedly admire is Walt Whitman. There, you will hear them say, is the real American undisguised. In the whole of English literature there is no figure which resembles his - among all our poetry none in the least comparable to Leaves of Grass

  Virginia Woolf

  Real, Home, Leaves Of Grass

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.3129, Delphi Classics

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• The Bible contains some of the most sublime passages in English literature, but is also full of contradictions, inconsistencies, and absurdities.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Bible, Religious, Sublime

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• If England has any dignity left in the way of literature, she will forget for ever the pitiful antics of English Literature's performing flea.

  Sean O'Casey

  Literature, Way, Fleas

  Sean O'Casey (1975). “The Letters of Sean O'Casey: 1910-41”, Catholic University of America Press

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• It's an absurd error to put modern English literature in the curriculum. You should read contemporary literature for pleasure or not at all. You shouldn't be taught to monkey with it.

  Rebecca West

  Errors, Literature, Monkeys

  "Rebecca West, The Art of Fiction No. 65". Interview with Marina Warner, The Paris Review, No. 79, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 1981.

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• I feel a bit of an imposter talking about the science. I'm not a scientist, you may be aware. I read English Literature.

  James Delingpole

  Talking, Literature, May

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• We are lucky in the United States to have our liberal arts system. In most countries, if you go to university, you have to decide for all English literature or no literature, all philosophy or no philosophy. But we have a system that is one part general education and one part specialization. If your parents say you've got to major in computer science, you can do that. But you can also take general education courses in the humanities, and usually you have to.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Country, Art, Philosophy

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• I studied English literature at university, but for some reason we only spent one week on [Charles] Dickens, so I remember just trying to find the shortest book that I could find. I was like, "'Hard Times,' really great - it's short, that'll do it."

  Felicity Jones

  Book, Hard Times, Trying

  Source: www.shockya.com

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• I would tell myself to get more sleep! Believe it or not, I wrote the book while finishing my PhD in English literature. It was wonderful to get away from doing literary scholarship by writing this mythical love story. I think so much of my own love for books and scholarship comes through in The Thorn and the Blossom.

  Theodora Goss

  Book, Believe, Sleep

  Source: www.bookequals.com

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• I didn't see many female politicians on TV. I didn't see women in history textbooks, so I did geography, and art and English literature. But I know I must have been affected by not seeing women represented.

  Emma Watson

  Art, Female, Textbooks

  Interview with Geena Davis, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 25, 2016.

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