We shall not busy ourselves with what men ought to have admired, what they ought to have written, what they ought to have thought, but with what they did think, write, admire

Quote by George Saintsbury

Topics: Mankind Quotes, Thinking Quotes, Writing Quotes

The transition state of manners and language cannot be too often insisted upon: for this...

The transition state of manners and language cannot be too often insisted upon: for this...

Miss Austen had shown the infinite possibilities of ordinary and present things for the novelist.

Miss Austen had shown the infinite possibilities of ordinary and present things for the novelist.

To pass to the deluge, and beyond it, and to come to close quarters with...

To pass to the deluge, and beyond it, and to come to close quarters with...

The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original...

The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original...

But the eighteenth century, on the whole, loathed melancholy.

But the eighteenth century, on the whole, loathed melancholy.

It is the unbroken testimony of all history that alcoholic liquors have been used by...

It is the unbroken testimony of all history that alcoholic liquors have been used by...

One of the best known, and one of the least intelligible, facts of literary history...

One of the best known, and one of the least intelligible, facts of literary history...

But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in...

But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in...

Between Scott on the earlier side and Dickens and Thackeray on the other, there was...

Between Scott on the earlier side and Dickens and Thackeray on the other, there was...

But even gold is not everything: and only a fanatic, and a rather foolish fanatic,...

But even gold is not everything: and only a fanatic, and a rather foolish fanatic,...

The Italian prose tale had begun to exercise that influence as early as Chaucer's time:...

The Italian prose tale had begun to exercise that influence as early as Chaucer's time:...