Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Philip Sidney

Quote by Philip Sidney

Work

Sir Philip Sidney: Selected Prose and Poetry

Sir Philip Sidney: Selected Prose and Poetry is a compilation of the notable writings of the Elizabethan poet and courtier. The collection features a selection of his prose and poetry, offering readers insight into his literary genius and the cultural context of his time. more

Author

Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney

Philip Sidney, born on November 30, 1554, and died on October 17, 1586, was a prominent poet, playwright, and critic during the English Renaissance. His works are renowned for their elegant style and profound thought, leaving a lasting impact on literature. more

You May Also Like

“I began to understand that 'America' in reality belonged to the whole world and not just to Americans. The idea of America had already been invented by the philosophers, the vagabonds, the dispersed of this earth, long before the Spanish ships got there. Those whom we call Americans have only rented it for a time. If they behave badly, we can discover another 'America'. The contract can be canceled at any time.”

“The imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude of parks and gardens... The phantoms which haunt a desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and how little he can perform.”

“There will be some fundamental assumptions which adherents of all the variant systems within the epoch unconsciously presuppose. Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them. With these assumptions a certain limited number of types of philosophic systems are possible, and this group of systems constitutes the philosophy of the epoch.”