“Lying may be necessary, but should always be painful.”
Source: The English Utilitarians: Volume III
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Famous Leslie Stephen Quotes
“He who sees only what is before his eyes sees the worst part of every view.”
Source: The Playground of Europe
“Poe is a kind of Hawthorne and delirium tremens.”
Source: Hours in a Library
Source: An Agnostic's Apology, and Other Essays
Source: Sir Thomas Browne. Jonathan Edwards. Horace Walpole. Dr. Johnson's writings. Crabbe. William Hazlitt. Disraeli's novels. Massinger
“The poet should touch our heart by showing his own”
Source: Hours in a Library: Charlotte Brontë. Charles Kingsley. Godwin and Shelley. Gray and his school. Sterne. Country books. George Eliot. Autobiography. Carlyle's ethics. The State trials. Coleridge
“A good talker, even more than a good orator, implies a good audience.”
Source: Samuel Johnson
Source: The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen
“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is doing a public service.”
Source: An Agnostic's Apology
Source: Essays on Freethinking and Plainspeaking
Source: An Agnostic's Apology, and Other Essays
Source: The Playground of Europe
Source: Studies of a Biographer
Source: Studies of a Biographer
“The truth cannot be asserted without denouncing the falsehood.”
Source: Essays on Freethinking and Plainspeaking