Home / Authors / George Saintsbury Books

George Saintsbury

George Saintsbury Books

Writer

George Saintsbury was an influential British writer, literary critic, and historian. His works spanned across various fields including literary criticism, historical research, and biography, having a profound impact on 19th-century British literature.

The English Novel

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

Notes on a Cellar-Book

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

History Of English Criticism

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

A Last Scrap Book

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

A Scrap Book

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

A history of criticism and literary tas...

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

George Saintsbury: The Memorial Volume...

A source page for quotes linked to George Saintsbury.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“As for the insane doctrine that being born in a country gives some right to the possession of the soil of that country, it hardly requires notice.”

Author:George Saintsbury

“Even the 'right to live'...extends no further than the right to protection against murder. Charity certainly will, morality possibly may, and public utility perhaps ought to add to this protection supererogatory provision for continuance of life; but it is questionable whether strict justice demands it.”

Capitalism Conservatives

Author:George Saintsbury

“When people cannot write good literature it is perhaps natural that they should lay down rules how good literature should be written.”

People Should Writing Literature Natural Written Lays Good Literature

Book:A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

Source: A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

“But dinner is dinner, a meal at which not so much to eat - it becomes difficult to eat much at it as you grow older - as to drink, to talk, to flirt, to discuss, to rejoice "at the closing of the day". I do not think anything serious should be done after it, as nothing should before breakfast.”

Thinking Should Done Grows Difficult Serious Drink Dinner Meals Breakfast Rejoice Flirting Closing

Book:A Scrap Book

Source: A Scrap Book

“Let us also once more rejoice in, and thank God for, the fact that we know nothing about Homer, and practically nothing about Shakespeare.”

Knows Facts Thank God Rejoice

Book:A Last Scrap Book

Source: A Last Scrap Book

“The Book of History is the Bible of Irony.”

Book:George Saintsbury: The Memorial Volume : a New Collection of His Essays and Papers

Source: George Saintsbury: The Memorial Volume : a New Collection of His Essays and Papers

“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.”

Thinking Men Writing Written Ought Busy Admire

Author:George Saintsbury

“Oratory is, after all, the prose literature of the savage.”

Literature Prose Savages Oratory

Book:A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe from the earliest texts to the present day

Source: A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe from the earliest texts to the present day

“Criticism is the endeavour to find, to know, to love, to recommend, not only the best, but all the good, that has been known and thought and written in the world.”

Knows World Has Beens Known Written Criticism Endeavour

Book:History Of English Criticism

Source: History Of English Criticism

“So, then, there abide these three, Aristotle, Longinus, and Coleridge.”

Book:History Of English Criticism

Source: History Of English Criticism

“Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right.”

Ifs Reason Majority

Book:A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

Source: A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

“I do not think anything serious should be done after dinner, as nothing should be before breakfast.”

Thinking Should Done Food Serious Cooking Dinner Culinary Breakfast

Author:George Saintsbury

“The hardest thing to attain... is the appreciation of difference without insisting on superiority.”

Differences Appreciation Hardest Superiority Hardest Thing Insisting

Book:Notes on a Cellar-Book

Source: Notes on a Cellar-Book

“Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that Humour excites in those who lack it.”

Humor Humour Curious Savages Hostility

Book:A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

Source: A Last Vintage: Essays and Papers

“Alcoholic drinks, rightly used, are good for body and soul alike, but as a restorative of both there is nothing like brandy.”

Soul Body Used Drink Alcohol Alcoholics Brandy Alcoholic Drinks

Book:Notes on a Cellar-Book

Source: Notes on a Cellar-Book

“It is the unbroken testimony of all history that alcoholic liquors have been used by the strongest, wisest, handsomest, and in every way best races of all times.”

Way Has Beens Used Race Beauty Drinking Alcohol All Time Strongest Testimony Alcoholics Wisest Liquor Unbroken

Book:Notes on a Cellar-Book

Source: Notes on a Cellar-Book

“When [wines] were good they pleased my sense, cheered my spirits, improved my moral and intellectual powers, besides enabling me to confer the same benefits on other people. (Notes on a Cellar Book)”

People Book Spirit Moral Benefits Intellectual Wine Notes Enabling Cellars Good Wine

Book:Notes on a Cellar-Book

Source: Notes on a Cellar-Book

“One of the best known, and one of the least intelligible, facts of literary history is the lateness, in Western European Literature at any rate, of prose fiction, and the comparative absence, in the two great classical languages, of what we call by that name.”

Two Facts Literature Names Language Fiction Known Western Rate Absence Prose Lateness Comparative Literature

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

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

Whole Century Melancholy

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“The Italian prose tale had begun to exercise that influence as early as Chaucer's time: but circumstances and atmosphere were as yet unfavourable for its growth.”

Growth Influence Circumstances Exercise Tales Atmosphere Prose Italian Chaucer

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“But even gold is not everything: and only a fanatic, and a rather foolish fanatic, would say that this style of fiction summed up and exhausted all the good that fiction could give and do.”

Giving Fiction Style Gold Foolish Exhausted Fanatics

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

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

Missing Possibility Ordinary Infinite Novelists Infinite Possibilities Austen

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“To pass to the deluge, and beyond it, and to come to close quarters with our proper division, the origin of Romance itself is a very debatable subject, or rather it is a subject which the wiser mind will hardly care to debate much.”

Mind Care Romance Subjects Debate Division Quarters Wiser Deluge

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“The transition state of manners and language cannot be too often insisted upon: for this affected the process at both ends, giving the artist in fictitious life an uncertain model to copy and unstable materials to work in.”

Giving Ends States Artist Language Process Materials Models Manners Copies Affected Transition Uncertain Unstable

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“But at the time when he wrote, Englishmen, with the rarest exceptions, wrote only in French or Latin; and when they began to write in English, a man of genius, to interpret and improve on him, was not found for a long time.”

Men Writing Long Found Genius Long Time Exception Latin Englishmen

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

“The Odyssey is, indeed, one of the greatest of all stories, it is the original romance of the West; but the Iliad, though a magnificent poem, is not much of a story.”

Stories Romance Originals West Magnificent Odyssey Iliad

Book:The English Novel

Source: The English Novel

About the Author

Born: October 23, 1845
Died: January 28, 1933
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 26

Related Topics

Literature Prose Should Thinking Writing Written Alcohol Alcoholics Book Breakfast

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The English NovelRelated source material

Notes on a Cellar-BookRelated source material

A Last Vintage: Essays and PapersRelated source material

History Of English CriticismRelated source material

A Last Scrap BookRelated source material

A Scrap BookRelated source material

A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe from the earliest texts to the present dayRelated source material

George Saintsbury: The Memorial Volume : a New Collection of His Essays and PapersRelated source material

Similar Authors

Guillermo Cabrera InfanteBrowse related quotes
Irwin ShawBrowse related quotes
Lynn AbbeyBrowse related quotes
Pattiann RogersBrowse related quotes
Manuel PuigBrowse related quotes
Norman MacCaigBrowse related quotes
Mickey SpillaneBrowse related quotes
Edward BondBrowse related quotes
Lisa GuerreroBrowse related quotes
Edwin Louis ColeBrowse related quotes