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Quote by William Dean Howells

Work

My Literary Passions

This book delves into the author's profound appreciation for various literary works, offering insights into the motivations and inspirations behind their passion for reading and writing. more

Author

William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells

William Dean Howells was a prominent American author, literary critic, and editor in the 19th century. His works, which encompassed novels, criticism, and essays, had a profound impact on American literature. more

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“It's a curious thing, this thing we call civilization...we think it is an affair of epochs, and nations. It's really an affair of individuals. One brother will be civilized and the other a barbarian...All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remote from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise.”

“In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.”

“Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?”

“The American Dream, that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.”