Literature Quotes

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.

Elizabeth Drew

Literature should not be surpressed merely because it affects the moral code of the censor.

William Orville Douglas

Life comes before literature, as the material always comes before the work. The hills are full of marble before the world blooms with statues.

Phillips Brooks

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

Andre Maurois

We pass the word around; we ponder how the case is put by different people, we read the poetry; we meditate over the literature; we play the music; we change our minds; we reach an understanding. Society evolves this way, not by shouting each other down, but by the unique capacity of unique, individual human beings to comprehend each other.

Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail (1979)

Literature is a luxury fiction is a necessity.

G. K. Chesterton

Studying literature at Harvard is like learning about women at the Mayo Clinic.

Roy Blount Jr.