Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Lionel Trilling

Quote by Lionel Trilling

“Somewhere in the child, somewhere in the adult, there is a hard, irreducible, stubborn core of biological urgency, and biological necessity, and biological reason that culture cannot reach and that reserves the right, which sooner or later it will exercise, to judge the culture and resist and revise it.”

Quote by Lionel Trilling

Create image

Author

Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling

Lionel Trilling was an influential American literary critic and writer, born on July 4, 1905, and died on November 5, 1975. He was a significant figure in 20th-century American literary criticism, known for his profound thought and sharp insights. more

You May Also Like

“Economic man and the Calvinist Christian sing to each other like voices in a fugue. The Calvinist stands alone before an almost merciless God; no human agency can help him; his church is a means to political and social organization rather than a bridge to deity, for no priest can have greater knowledge of the divine way than he himself; no friend can console him - in fact, he should distrust all men; in the same fashion, Economic Man faces a merciless world alone and unaided, his hand against every other's.”

MenWorldWayShouldHumansMeanFactsHelpingHandsChristianFacesPoliticalSocialVoiceChurchGreaterEconomicFashionDivineOrganizationBridgesAgencyPriestsDistrustDeitiesConsoleStand AloneNo FriendsSocial OrganizationFugue
Author:Lionel Trilling
Create image

“The definitions of humanism are many, but let us here take it to be the attitude of those men who think it an advantage to live in society, and, at that, in a complex and highly developed society, and who believe that man fulfills his nature and reaches his proper stature in this circumstance. The personal virtues which humanism cherishes are intelligence, amenity, and tolerance; the particular courage it asks for is that which is exercised in the support of these virtues. The qualities of intelligence which it chiefly prizes are modulation and flexibility.”

ThinkingMenBelieveAsksAttitudeQualitySupportVirtueParticularCircumstancesAdvantageComplexesHumanismDefinitionsTolerancePrizeCherishFlexibilityStatureAmenities
Author:Lionel Trilling
Create image

“Disgust is expressed by violence, and it is to be noted of our intellectual temper that violence is a quality which is felt to have a peculiarly intellectual sanction. Our preference, even as articulated by those who are most mild in their persons, is increasingly for the absolute and extreme, of which we feel violence to be the true sign. The gentlest of us will know that the tigers of wrath are to be preferred to the horses of instruction and will consider it intellectual cowardice to take into account what happens to those who ride tigers.”

KnowsFeelsPersonsHappensFeltQualityViolenceIntellectualAccountsHorseAbsolutesExtremesTemperInstructionCowardiceDisgustingTigersPreferenceWrathSanctions
Author:Lionel Trilling
Create image