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Quote by Robert Aris Willmott

“A book becomes a mirror, with the author's face shining over it. Talent only gives an imperfect image,--the broken glimmer of a countenance. But the features of genius remain unruffled. Time guards the shadow. Beauty, the spiritual, Venus,--whose children are the Tassos, the Spensers, the Bacons,--breathes, the magic of her love, and fixes the face forever.”

Quote by Robert Aris Willmott

Author

Robert Aris Willmott

Robert Aris Willmott (1809-1863) was a prominent British author known for his works that depicted rural life and social changes, which were highly appreciated by readers. more

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“Books, of which the principles are diseased or deformed, must be kept on the shelf of the scholar, as the man of science preserves monsters in glasses. They belong to the study of the mind's morbid anatomy, and ought to be accurately labelled. Voltaire will still be a wit, notwithstanding he is a scoffer; and we may admire the brilliant spots and eyes of the viper, if we acknowledge its venom and call it a reptile.”

“Many books belong to sunshine, and should be read out of doors. Clover, violets, and hedge roses breathe from their leaves; they are most lovable in cool lanes, along field paths, or upon stiles overhung by hawthorn, while the blackbird pipes, and the nightingale bathes its brown feathers in the twilight copse.”

Should Book Path Doors Fields Rose Breathe Brown Sunshine Twilight Feathers Violet Pipe Lanes Lovable Nightingales Clovers Blackbirds Stiles Most Lovable

Book:Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature

Source: Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature

“Of many large volumes the index is the best portion and the usefullest. A glance through the casement gives whatever knowledge of the interior is needful. An epitome is only a book shortened; and as a general rule, the worth increases as the size lessens.”

Giving Book Increase Size Portions Volume Glances Interiors Epitome

Book:Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature

Source: Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature

“Criticism must never be sharpened into anatomy. The delicate veins of fancy may be traced, and the rich blood that gives bloom and health to the complexion of thought be resolved into its elements. Stop there. The life of the imagination, as of the body, disappears when we pursue it.”

Giving May Body Imagination Rich Blood Elements Criticism Disappear Pursue Fancy Delicate Veins Anatomy Complexion

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“One interesting feature of criticism is seen in the ease with which it discovers what Addison called the specific quality of an author. In Livy, it will be the manner of telling the story; in Sallust, personal identification with the character; in Tacitus, the analysis of the deed into its motive. If the same test be applied to painters, it will find the prominent faculty of Correggio to be manifested in harmony of effect; of Poussin, in the sentiment of his landscapes; and of Raffaelle, in the general comprehension of his subject.”

“It is the empiric who never fails.”

Failing Failure

Author:Robert Aris Willmott

“Few footprints of the great remain in the sand before the ever-flowing tide. Long ago it washed out Homer's. Curiosity follows him in vain; Greece and Asia perplex us with a rival Stratford-upon-Avon. The rank of Aristophanes is only conjectured from his gift to two poor players in Athens. The age made no sign when Shakespeare, its noblest son, passed away.”

Long Made Two Age Poor Player Greatness Son Curiosity Vain Sand Tides Long Ago Asia Greece Rivals Footprint Passed Away Athens Avon

Author:Robert Aris Willmott

“The ponderous tomes are bales of the mind's merchandise.”

Mind Merchandise Red Leaves

Book:Pleasures of Literature

Source: Pleasures of Literature

“Poetical taste is the only magician whose wand is not broken. No hand, except its own, can dissolve the fabric of beauty in which it dwells. Genii, unknown to Arabian fable, wait at the portal. Whatever is most precious from the loom or the mine of fancy is poured at its feet. Love, purified by contemplation, visits and cheers it; unseen musicians are heard in the dark; it is Psyche in the palace of Cupid.”

Hands Poetry Waiting Dark Heard Feet Mines Broken Taste Musician Contemplation Fancy Cheer Fabric Unseen Magician Palaces Fables Wands Portal Cupid Arabian

Book:Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature

Source: Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature

“Poetry deserves the honor it obtains as the eldest offspring of literature, and the fairest. It is the fruitfulness of many plants growing into one flower and sowing itself over the world in shapes of beauty and color, which differ with the soil that receives and the sun that ripens the seed. In Persia, it comes up the rose of Hafiz; in England, the many-blossomed tree of Shakespeare.”

World Poetry Literature Sun Growing Tree Color Flower Honor Shapes Deserve England Rose Plant Come Up Seeds Soil Offspring Sowing Eldest Persia Fruitfulness Hafiz Plants Growing

Author:Robert Aris Willmott