Home / Authors / Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye Quotes

Literary critic

Northrop Frye was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, renowned for his extensive work on the Bible, mythology, and the literary imagination. His theories have had a significant impact on the field of literary criticism and have influenced many scholars and critics.

Filter quotes by topic

All Literature Art Humans Men World People Criticism Imagination Language Structure Mind Ifs Knows May Metaphor Myth Study Thinking Use Writing

Famous Northrop Frye Quotes

“Beauty and truth may be attributes of good writing, but if the writer deliberately aims at truth, he is likely to find that what he has hit is the didactic.”

Ifs Writing May Aim Attributes Good Writing Didactic

Book:Collected Works of Northrop Frye: The educated imagination and other writings on critical theory 1933-1963

Source: Collected Works of Northrop Frye: The educated imagination and other writings on critical theory 1933-1963

“The Book of Revelation, difficult as it may be for "literalists," becomes much simpler when we read it typologically, as a mosiac of allusions to Old Testament prophecy.”

May Book Difficult Revelations Prophecy Testament Old Testament Allusion Book Of Revelation

Author:Northrop Frye

“The ups and downs of this cosmos may sometimes be acknowledged to be metaphorical ups and downs, but until about Newton's time most people took the "up" of heaven and the "down" of hell to be more or less descriptive.”

People May Sometimes Heaven Hell Cosmos Newton Ups & Downs Metaphorical

Book:Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake

Source: Northrop Frye on Milton and Blake

“A snowflake is probably quite unconscious of forming a crystal, but what it does may be worth study even if we are willing to leave its inner mental processes alone.”

Ifs May Doe Process Study Willing Criticism Unconscious Crystals Snowflake

Book:Anatomy of Criticism

Source: Anatomy of Criticism

“A person who knows nothing about literature may be an ignoramus, but many people don't mind being that.”

People Knows Mind May Persons Literature

Book:The Educated Imagination

Source: The Educated Imagination

“No matter how much experience we may gather in life, we can never in life get the dimension of experience that the imagination gives us. Only the arts and sciences can do that, and of these, only literature gives us the whole sweep and range of human imagination as it sees itself”

Giving Humans May Art Matter Whole Literature Can Do Imagination Range Dimensions Art And Science Human Imagination

Book:Educated Imagination and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933-1962

Source: Educated Imagination and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933-1962

About the Author

Born: July 14, 1912
Died: January 23, 1991
Known for: Literary critic
Quotes: 123

Related Topics

Literature Art Humans Men World People Criticism Imagination Language Structure Mind Ifs Knows May Metaphor Myth Study Thinking Use Writing

Popular Topics

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

Books & Sources

Anatomy of CriticismRelated source material

Educated Imagination and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933-1962Related source material

The Great Code: The Bible and LiteratureRelated source material

The Educated ImaginationRelated source material

The Northrop Frye Quote BookRelated source material

Northrop Frye on CanadaRelated source material

Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western CultureRelated source material

Collected Works of Northrop Frye: The educated imagination and other writings on critical theory 1933-1963Related source material

Northrop Frye's Late Notebooks, 1982-1990: Architecture of the Spiritual WorldRelated source material

Northrop Frye on Milton and BlakeRelated source material

Similar Authors

Irwin ShawBrowse related quotes
Manuel PuigBrowse related quotes
Norman MacCaigBrowse related quotes
Edward BondBrowse related quotes
Edwin Louis ColeBrowse related quotes
Jessica SavitchBrowse related quotes
Guillermo Cabrera InfanteBrowse related quotes
Lisa GuerreroBrowse related quotes
Marilyn vos SavantBrowse related quotes
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelBrowse related quotes