Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
b941a28	Wallace) Stevens turns to the idea of the weather precisely as the religious man turns to the idea of God.	poetry religion wallace-stevens weather	Harold Bloom
91ef39d	Reading well is one of the great pleasures	experience great healing pleasures solitude	Harold Bloom
836f9ed	Nietzsche tended to equate the memorable with the painful.	humility maturation	Harold Bloom
37db0af	Persuasion is a strong but subdued outrider.	leadership subtlety timing	Harold Bloom
f90702c	Tradition is not only bending down, or process of benign transmission. It is also a conflict between past genius and present aspiration in which the price is literary survival or canonical inclusion.	continuity innovation	Harold Bloom
56f619b	Wild with laughter, Twelfth Night is nevertheless almost always on the edge of violence.		Harold Bloom
31b2e3a	Yet any distinction between literature and life is misleading. Literature for me is not merely the best part of life; it is itself the form of life, which has no other form.	love passion	Harold Bloom
1079baf	Vision is defined as a program for restoring the human.	inspiration revelation	Harold Bloom
bb62454	It has always been dangerous to institutionalize hope, and we no longer live in a society in which we will be allowed to institutionalize memory.	conventional-wisdom idolatry intimacy-with-god materialism resilience worship	Harold Bloom
41fc25a	A poem, novel, or play acquires all of humanity's disorders, including the fear of mortality	culture depravity heritage	Harold Bloom
f2f6906	What Emily Dickinson does not rename or redefine, she revises beyond easy recognition.	inspiration vision	Harold Bloom
b842b9f	Terror and rapture to Emily Dickinson are alternative words for "transport"."	emotion intensity transcendence worship	Harold Bloom
9e971a8	According to the myth, Prometheus steal fire to free us; Iago steals us as fresh fodder for the fire.	iago shakespeare-criticism	Harold Bloom
4bb9ea9	What could Yeshua of Nazareth have made of Martin Luther's outburst "Death to the Law!" which in many German Lutherans who served Hitler became "Death to the Jews!" The Germans would not have crucified Jesus: they would have exterminated him at Auschwitz, their version of the Temple."		Harold Bloom
7a533dc	We are destroying all esthetic standards in the name of social justice.	literature writing	Harold Bloom
7e8e11b	Oscar Wilde's "beautiful untrue things" that save the imagination from falling into "careless habits of accuracy."		Harold Bloom
d633b72	Beckett despite his professed preference for Racine, is master and victim, and as such pervades Beckett's canonical drama, Endgame. Beckett's Hamlet follows the French model, in which excessive consciousness negates action, which is at some distance from Shakespeare's Hamlet.		Harold Bloom
2ed350e	The James family, raised by their Emersonian father, accepted their heritage, with reservations by Henry yet fewer by William.		Harold Bloom
07223fa	Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.		Harold Bloom
ab95c45	Infinite knowledge can never wonder. All wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance.		Harold Bloom
8b21542	Walter Pater defined Romanticism as adding strangeness to beauty.	distinctiveness openness style	Harold Bloom
e42bc4f	Memory is always in art, even when it works involuntarily.	culture distortion emotion perception	Harold Bloom
c80e9e4	Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.	church-and-state idolatry manipulation	Harold Bloom
00c8124	One reads for oneself and for strangers.	education goodreads influence relationships	Harold Bloom
bb6a162	The unity of a great era is generally an illusion.	division	Harold Bloom
47b2eaa	Romance depends upon imperfect knowledge.	intimacy-with-god mystery-omniscience worship	Harold Bloom
7d20ca7	Calling a work of sufficient literary power either religious or secular is a political decision, not an aesthetic one.		Harold Bloom
227eefb	I treasure ruefully some memories of W.H. Auden that go back to the middle 1960s, when he arrived in New Haven to give a reading of his poems at Ezra Stiles College. We had met several times before, in New York City and at Yale, but were only acquaintances. The earlier Auden retains my interest, but much of the frequently devotional poetry does not find me. Since our mutual friend John Hollander was abroad, Auden phoned to ask if he might s..		Harold Bloom
a648ca1	King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.	idolatry leadership	Harold Bloom
2a0f455	To condemn Wordsworth for not writing verse of political and social protest, or for having forsaken the revolution, is to cross the final divide between academic arrogance and moral smugness.		Harold Bloom
bbd53e1	Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden.	bitterness compassion condemnation conviction curiosity graciousness openness	Harold Bloom
ae0bcfd	American Religionists, when I questioned them, frequently said that falling in love was affirming again Christ's love for each of them.		Harold Bloom
64f8c6c	Canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition. - From the book jacket	innovation	Harold Bloom
2cbc0dc	You get too much at last of everything: of sunsets, of cabbages, of love.		Harold Bloom
ecbdab8	Every poet begins (however 'unconsciously') by rebelling more strongly against the fear of death than all other men and women do.	poetry	Harold Bloom
77278f3	To deprive the derelicts of hope is right, and to sustain them in their illusory "pipe dreams" is right also." --	literary-criticism the-iceman-cometh tragedy	Harold Bloom
f5a34f9	Shakespeare and his few peers invented all of us.	conventional-wisdom legacy literature self-perception	Harold Bloom
ee5f42e	Almost anything at all can be transmuted into a labyrinth.	frustrations obstacles pessimism	Harold Bloom
bfc54e3	Lawrence will go on burying his own undertakers.	legacy perseverance	Harold Bloom
ad85c00	He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.		Harold Bloom
7b8d487	Dante subsumed everything, and so, in a sense, secularized nothing.	discipleship idolatry vocation work worship	Harold Bloom
b93f41a	The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure ourselves.		Harold Bloom
95ff34c	Great literature will insist upon its self-sufficiency in the face of the worthiest causes	continuity politics reading timelessness	Harold Bloom
b60036d	The true use of Shakespeare or of Cervantes, of Homer or of Dante, of Chaucer or of Rabelais, is to augment one's own growing inner self. Reading deeply in the Canon will not make one a better or a worse person, a more useful or more harmful citizen. The mind's dialogue with itself is not primarily a social reality. All that the Western Canon can bring one is the proper use of one's own solitude, that solitude whose final form is one's conf..		Harold Bloom

Wallace) Stevens turns to the idea of the weather precisely as the religious man turns to the idea of God.

Harold Bloom

91ef39d

Reading well is one of the great pleasures

experience great healing pleasures solitude

Harold Bloom

836f9ed

Nietzsche tended to equate the memorable with the painful.

humility maturation

Harold Bloom

37db0af

Persuasion is a strong but subdued outrider.

leadership subtlety timing

Harold Bloom

f90702c

Tradition is not only bending down, or process of benign transmission. It is also a conflict between past genius and present aspiration in which the price is literary survival or canonical inclusion.

continuity innovation

Harold Bloom

56f619b

Wild with laughter, Twelfth Night is nevertheless almost always on the edge of violence.

Harold Bloom

31b2e3a

Yet any distinction between literature and life is misleading. Literature for me is not merely the best part of life; it is itself the form of life, which has no other form.

love passion

Harold Bloom

1079baf

Vision is defined as a program for restoring the human.

inspiration revelation

Harold Bloom

bb62454

It has always been dangerous to institutionalize hope, and we no longer live in a society in which we will be allowed to institutionalize memory.

conventional-wisdom idolatry intimacy-with-god materialism resilience worship

Harold Bloom

41fc25a

A poem, novel, or play acquires all of humanity's disorders, including the fear of mortality

culture depravity heritage

Harold Bloom

f2f6906

What Emily Dickinson does not rename or redefine, she revises beyond easy recognition.

inspiration vision

Harold Bloom

b842b9f

Terror and rapture to Emily Dickinson are alternative words for "transport"."

emotion intensity transcendence worship

Harold Bloom

9e971a8

According to the myth, Prometheus steal fire to free us; Iago steals us as fresh fodder for the fire.

iago shakespeare-criticism

Harold Bloom

4bb9ea9

What could Yeshua of Nazareth have made of Martin Luther's outburst "Death to the Law!" which in many German Lutherans who served Hitler became "Death to the Jews!" The Germans would not have crucified Jesus: they would have exterminated him at Auschwitz, their version of the Temple."

Harold Bloom

7a533dc

We are destroying all esthetic standards in the name of social justice.

literature writing

Harold Bloom

7e8e11b

Oscar Wilde's "beautiful untrue things" that save the imagination from falling into "careless habits of accuracy."

Harold Bloom

d633b72

Beckett despite his professed preference for Racine, is master and victim, and as such pervades Beckett's canonical drama, Endgame. Beckett's Hamlet follows the French model, in which excessive consciousness negates action, which is at some distance from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Harold Bloom

2ed350e

The James family, raised by their Emersonian father, accepted their heritage, with reservations by Henry yet fewer by William.

Harold Bloom

07223fa

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.

Harold Bloom

ab95c45

Infinite knowledge can never wonder. All wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance.

Harold Bloom

8b21542

Walter Pater defined Romanticism as adding strangeness to beauty.

distinctiveness openness style

Harold Bloom

e42bc4f

Memory is always in art, even when it works involuntarily.

culture distortion emotion perception

Harold Bloom

c80e9e4

Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.

church-and-state idolatry manipulation

Harold Bloom

00c8124

One reads for oneself and for strangers.

education goodreads influence relationships

Harold Bloom

bb6a162

The unity of a great era is generally an illusion.

division

Harold Bloom

47b2eaa

Romance depends upon imperfect knowledge.

intimacy-with-god mystery-omniscience worship

Harold Bloom

7d20ca7

Calling a work of sufficient literary power either religious or secular is a political decision, not an aesthetic one.

Harold Bloom

227eefb

I treasure ruefully some memories of W.H. Auden that go back to the middle 1960s, when he arrived in New Haven to give a reading of his poems at Ezra Stiles College. We had met several times before, in New York City and at Yale, but were only acquaintances. The earlier Auden retains my interest, but much of the frequently devotional poetry does not find me. Since our mutual friend John Hollander was abroad, Auden phoned to ask if he might s..

Harold Bloom

a648ca1

King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.

idolatry leadership

Harold Bloom

2a0f455

To condemn Wordsworth for not writing verse of political and social protest, or for having forsaken the revolution, is to cross the final divide between academic arrogance and moral smugness.

Harold Bloom

bbd53e1

Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden.

bitterness compassion condemnation conviction curiosity graciousness openness

Harold Bloom

ae0bcfd

American Religionists, when I questioned them, frequently said that falling in love was affirming again Christ's love for each of them.

Harold Bloom

64f8c6c

Canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition. - From the book jacket

innovation

Harold Bloom

2cbc0dc

You get too much at last of everything: of sunsets, of cabbages, of love.

Harold Bloom

ecbdab8

Every poet begins (however 'unconsciously') by rebelling more strongly against the fear of death than all other men and women do.

poetry

Harold Bloom

77278f3

To deprive the derelicts of hope is right, and to sustain them in their illusory "pipe dreams" is right also." --

literary-criticism the-iceman-cometh tragedy

Harold Bloom

f5a34f9

Shakespeare and his few peers invented all of us.

conventional-wisdom legacy literature self-perception

Harold Bloom

ee5f42e

Almost anything at all can be transmuted into a labyrinth.

frustrations obstacles pessimism

Harold Bloom

bfc54e3

Lawrence will go on burying his own undertakers.

legacy perseverance

Harold Bloom

ad85c00

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Harold Bloom

7b8d487

Dante subsumed everything, and so, in a sense, secularized nothing.

discipleship idolatry vocation work worship

Harold Bloom

b93f41a

The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure ourselves.

Harold Bloom

95ff34c

Great literature will insist upon its self-sufficiency in the face of the worthiest causes

continuity politics reading timelessness

Harold Bloom

b60036d

The true use of Shakespeare or of Cervantes, of Homer or of Dante, of Chaucer or of Rabelais, is to augment one's own growing inner self. Reading deeply in the Canon will not make one a better or a worse person, a more useful or more harmful citizen. The mind's dialogue with itself is not primarily a social reality. All that the Western Canon can bring one is the proper use of one's own solitude, that solitude whose final form is one's conf..

Harold Bloom