Quotessence
Home / Books / Pleasures of Literature

Pleasures of Literature

Book by Robert Aris Willmott · 18 quotes · Book, Elements, History

Filter quotes by topic

AllBookElementsHistoryReaderReadingRomanceScienceBeautifulDelicateFancyFictionGivingLightMayMerchandiseMindRobinson CrusoeStarsSweetnessWorld

Pleasures of Literature Quotes

“Joy and grief are never far apart. In the same street the shutters of one house are closed, while the curtains of the next are brushed by shadow of the dance. A wedding-party returns from church, and a funeral winds to its door. The smiles and the sadness of life are the tragi-comedy of Shakespeare. Gladness and sighs brighten and dim the mirror he beholds.”

JoyNextHouseChurchPartyGriefComedyDoorsSadnessStreetsWindReturnShadowMirrorsFuneralContrastSighCurtainsGladnessShuttersSadness Of LifeJoy And GriefWedding Party
Book:Pleasures of Literature
Create image

“History presents the pleasantest features of poetry and fiction,--the majesty of the epic, the moving accidents of the drama, the surprises and moral of the romance. Wallace is a ruder Hector; Robinson Crusoe is not stranger that Croesus; the Knights of Ashby never burnish the page of Scott with richer lights of lance and armor than the Carthaginians, winding down the Alps, cast upon Livy.”

LightRomanceMovingFictionMoralHistoryDramaPagesSurpriseCastsStrangerAccidentsFeaturesEpicMajestyKnightsArmorAlpsHectorRobinson CrusoeWinding Down
Book:Pleasures of Literature
Create image

“The importance of the romantic element does not rest upon conjecture. Pleasing testimonies abound. Hannah More traced her earliest impressions of virtue to works of fiction; and Adam Clarke gives a list of tales that won his boyish admiration. Books of entertainment led him to believe in a spiritual world; and he felt sure of having been a coward, but for romances. He declared that he had learned more of his duty to God, his neighbor and himself from Robinson Crusoe than from all the books, except the Bible, that were known to his youth.”

WorldGivingBelieveDoeBookSpiritualRomanceFeltFictionKnownVirtueYouthDutyElementsImportanceEntertainmentNeighborListsImpressionTalesAdmirationCowardAdamTestimonyConjectureBoyishRobinson CrusoeDuty To God
Book:Pleasures of Literature
Create image

“From numberless books the fluttering reader, idle and inconstant, bears away the bloom that only clings to the outer leaf; but genius has its nectaries, delicate glands, and secrecies of sweetness, and upon these the thoughtful mind must settle in its labor, before the choice perfume of fancy and wisdom is drawn forth.”

MindBookChoicesReadingBearsReaderGeniusLaborSettlingFancyThoughtfulDelicateIdleLeafsSweetnessPerfumeSecrecyFlutteringGlandsThoughtful Mind
Book:Pleasures of Literature
Create image

“Taste is not stationary. It grows every day, and is improved by cultivation, as a good temper is refined by religion. In its most advanced state it takes the title of judgment. Hume quotes Fontenelle's ingenious distinction between the common watch that tells the hours, and the delicately constructed one that marks the seconds and smallest differences of time.”

StatesGrowsHoursDifferencesCommonWatchesTasteJudgmentMarkTitlesDistinctionSecondsTemperSmallestRefinedIngeniousCultivationStationaryHume
Book:Pleasures of Literature
Create image