George Henry Lewes's Quotes

In complex trains of thought signs are indispensable.

Literature delivers tidings of the world within and the world without.

Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.

Ordinary men live among marvels and feel no wonder, grow familiar with objects and learn nothing new about them.

Personal experience is the basis of all real Literature.

Science is not addressed to poets.

Science is the systematic classification of experience.

Speak for yourself and from yourself, or be silent.

The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected.

The public can only be really moved by what is genuine.

The superiority of one mind over another depends on the rapidity with which experiences are thus organised.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.

Sincerity is not only effective and honourable, it is also much less difficult than is commonly supposed.

Sincerity is moral truth.

When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent.

The only cure for grief is action.

Endeavour to be faithful, and if there is any beauty in your thought, your style will be beautiful; if there is any real emotion to express, the expression will be moving.

Insight is the first condition of Art.

It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.

Language, after all, is only the use of symbols, and Art also can only affect us through symbols.

No man was ever eloquent by trying to be eloquent, but only by being so.