GEORGE HENRY LEWES QUOTES
English philosopher & literary critic (1817-1878)
There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
It is always understood as an expression of condemnation when anything in Literature or Art is said to be done for effect; and yet to produce an effect is the aim and end of both.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
If a work of art is placed before me, I believe I can enjoy it; but I do not overlook the fact, that Art is one thing, another thing Amusement; and that people do like amusements, and will run after it.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
Dramatic Essays
No deeply-rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse argument. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Foundations of a Creed
The only cure for grief is action.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Spanish Drama
It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
On Actors and the Art of Acting
Our native susceptibilities and acquired tastes determine which of the many qualities in an object shall most impress us, and be most clearly recalled. One man remembers the combustible properties of a substance, which to another is memorable for its polarising property; to one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezvous for lovers.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Physiology of Common Life
If the members of a class do not understand -- if those directly addressed fail to listen, or listening, fail to recognize a power in the voice -- surely the fault lies with the speaker, who, having attempted to secure their attention and enlighten their understandings, has failed in the attempt.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
The mathematician who is without value to mathematicians, the thinker who is obscure or meaningless to thinkers, the dramatist who fails to move the pit, may be wise, may be eminent, but as an author he has failed.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
In complex trains of thought, signs are indispensable.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
The history of the race is but that of the individual "writ large".
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Foundations of a Creed
Inasmuch as success must be determined by the relation between the work and the public, the sincerity which leads a man into open revolt against established opinions may seem to be an obstacle. Indeed, publishers, critics, and friends are always loud in their prophecies against originality and independence on this very ground; they do their utmost to stifle every attempt at novelty, because they fix their eyes upon a hypothetical public taste, and think that only what has already been proved successful can again succeed; forgetting that whatever has once been done need not be done over again, and forgetting that what is now commonplace was once originality.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
In the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the earth we tread on, Life is every where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with Life ; every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
Studies in Animal Life
The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished. He uses the simplest phrases without triviality, and the grandest without a suggestion of grandiloquence.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
Among the many strange servilities mistaken for pieties, one of the least lovely is that which hopes to flatter God by despising the world, and vilifying human nature.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Foundations of a Creed
We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Physiology of Common Life
A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Principles of Success in Literature
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES
The Spanish Drama