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Essence Quotes

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Essence Quotes

“What lasts is what is written. We look to literature to find the essence of an age.”

Looks Age Lasts Literature Written Essence

Author:Peter Brodie

“Poetry is simply literature reduced to the essence of its active principle. It is purged of idols of every kind, of realistic illusions, of any conceivable equivocation between the language of "truth" and the language of "creation."”

Kind Literature Language Principles Creation Illusion Essence Active Poetry Is Realistic Idols

Author:Paul Valery

“In the nineteenth century one had to give all sorts of guarantees and lead an exemplary life in order to cleanse oneself in the eyes of the bourgeois of the sin of writing, for literature is, in essence, heresy. The situation has not changed except that it is now the Communists, that is, the qualified representatives of the proletariat, who as a matter of principle regard the writer as suspect.”

“Whether we know it or not, we are all in a quest after the Great Companion. All study, all art, all music, all literature, all government, all industry are in essence a search after the Infinite.”

Knows Art Government Literature Study Industry Essence Infinite Companion Quests

Author:Lyman Abbott

“The impulse to perfection cannot exist where the definition of perfection is the arbitrary decision of authority. That which is born in loneliness and from the heart cannot be defended against the judgment of a committee of sycophants. The volatile essences which make literature cannot survive the clichés of a long series of story conferences.”

Heart Long Stories Literature Born Decision Loneliness Authority Judgment Perfection Essence Series Definitions Impulse Committees Conferences Arbitrary Sycophants

Book:Raymond Chandler Speaking

Source: Raymond Chandler Speaking

“True literature is more than just a story someone has told. It must provide the reader with the essence of the world on a moral, philosophical and emotional level.”

World Stories Literature Levels Moral Emotional Reader Essence Philosophical

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“All truths are erroneous. This is the very essence of the dialectical process: today's truths become errors tomorrow; there is no final number. This truth (the only one) is for the strong alone. Weak-nerved minds insist on a finite universe, a last number; they need, in Nietzsche's words, "the crutches of certainty". The weak-nerved lack the strength to include themselves in the dialectic syllogism.”

Inspirational Needs Mind Art Today Lasts Universe Literature Strong Process Numbers Tomorrow Truth Is Weak Essence Errors Finals Certainty Finite Crutches Dialectics

Author:Yevgeny Zamyatin

“The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.”

Life War Passion Literature Emotion Intellectual Essence Intellect Silly Substance Life And Death Between Life And Death

Author:Isaac Bashevis Singer

“When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.”

Political Literature President Decision Policy Essence Decision Making Presidency

Author:Bob Woodward

“Psychology teaches us at every step that though two types of activity can have the same external manifestation, whether in origin or essence, their nature may differ most profoundly.”

May Two Philosophy Literature Steps Teach Psychology Type Activity Essence Educational Manifestation Every Step

Author:Lev S. Vygotsky

“The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.”

Humans Looks Use Light Moving Life Is Evil Literature Morality Essence Human Life Opposition Good And Evil Questioning

Author:Georges Bataille

“Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.”

Literature Alive Essence Charity Generosity Selfishness Transcendentalism Posthumous

Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words

Source: Lacon: or, Many things in few words

“The freedom to be an individual is the essence of America.”

America Literature Individual Essence

Author:Marilyn vos Savant