G. H. Lewes Quotes

Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.

Science is the systematic classification of experience.

Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism.

It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

No man ever made a great discovery without the exercise of the imagination.

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

To write much, and to write rapidly, are empty boasts. The world desires to know what you have done, and not how you did it.

The only cure for grief is action.

Good writers are of necessity rare.

Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

In complex trains of thought signs are indispensable.

In the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the earth we tread on, Life is every where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with Life ; every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle.

The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected.

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

Endeavour to be faithful, and if there is any beauty in your thought, your style will be beautiful; if there is any real emotion to express, the expression will be moving.

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent.

Imagination is not the exclusive appanage of artists, but belongs in varying degrees to all men.

In its happiest efforts, translation is but approximation, and its efforts are not often happy. A translation may be good as translation, but it cannot be an adequate reproduction of the original.

Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.

As all Art depends on Vision, so the different kinds of Art depend on the different ways in which minds look at things.

No deeply rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse judgment. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be destroyed by logic.

If you feel yourself to be above the mass, speak so as to raise the mass to the height of your argument.

The air is crowded with birds -- beautiful, tender, intelligent birds -- to whom life is a song.

All good Literature rests primarily on insight.

Genius is rarely able to give any account of its own processes.

All bad Literature rests upon imperfect insight, or upon imitation, which may be defined as seeing at second-hand.

A cell is regarded as the true biological atom.

To some men popularity is always suspicious. Enjoying none themselves, they are prone to suspect the validity of those attainments which command it.

No man was ever eloquent by trying to be eloquent, but only by being so.

The real people of genius were resolute workers not idle dreamers.

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

Remember that every drop of rain that falls bears into the bosom of the earth a quality of beautiful fertility.

In Science the paramount appeal is to the Intellect-its purpose being instruction; in Art, the paramount appeal is to the Emotions-its purpose being pleasure.

Literature delivers tidings of the world within and the world without.

The great desire of this age is for a doctrine which may serve to condense our knowledge, guide our researches, and shape our lives, so that conduct may really be the consequence of belief

Among the many strange servilities mistaken for pieties, one of the least lovely is that which hopes to flatter God by despising the world, and vilifying human nature.

Books have become our dearest companions, yielding exquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims.

The intensity of vision in the artist and of vividness in his creations are the sole tests of his imaginative power.

The public can only be really moved by what is genuine.

To one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezvous for lovers.

Love is blind; couch not his eyes.

All great authors are seers.

Sincerity is moral truth.

Philosophy and Art both render the invisible visible by imagination.

In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.

Pliny... makes the statement, and for untrustworthiness of statement he cannot easily be surpassed.

A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief.