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“Minds differ in the vividness with which they recall the elements of previous experience”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: Minds differ in the vividness with which they recall the elements of previous experience, and mentally see the absent objects; they differ also in the aptitudes for selection, abstraction, and recombination: the fine selective instinct of the artist, which makes him fasten upon the details which will most powerfully affect us, without any disturbance of the harmony of the general impression, does not depend solely upon the vividness of his memory and the clearness with which the objects are seen, but depends also upon very complex and peculiar conditions of sympathy which we call genius.

“The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished. He uses the simplest phrases without triviality, and the grandest without a suggestion of grandiloquence.

“An artist produces an effect in virtue of the distinctness with which he sees the objects he represents, seeing them not vaguely as in vanishing apparitions, but steadily, and in their most characteristic relations. To this Vision he adds artistic skill with which to make us see.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: An artist produces an effect in virtue of the distinctness with which he sees the objects he represents, seeing them not vaguely as in vanishing apparitions, but steadily, and in their most characteristic relations. To this Vision he adds artistic skill with which to make us see. He may have clear conceptions, yet fail to make them clear to us: in this case he has imagination, but is not an artist. Without clear Vision no skill can avail. Imperfect Vision necessitates imperfect representation; words take the place of ideas.

“No man really thinks and feels monotonously.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: No man really thinks and feels monotonously. If he is monotonous in his manner of setting forth his thoughts and feelings, that is either because he has not learned the art of writing, or because he is more or less consciously imitating the manner of others. The subtle play of thought will give movement and life to his style if he do not clog it with critical superstitions. I do not say that it will give him grace and power; I do not say that relying on perfect sincerity will make him a fine writer, because sincerity will not give talent; but I say that sincerity will give him all the power that is possible to him, and will secure him the inestimable excellence of Variety.

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

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: I wish to call special attention to the psychological fact, that fairies and demons, remote as they are from experience, are not created by a more vigorous effort of imagination than milk maids and poachers. The intensity of vision in the artist and of vividness in his creations are the sole tests of his imaginative power.

“Whatever lies beyond the limits of experience, and claims another origin than that of induction and deduction from established data, is illegitimate.”

George Henry Lewes

Vol. 1, p. 17
The Foundations of a Creed (1874-5)

“We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.”

George Henry Lewes

The Physiology of Common Life (1859-60; repr. New York: D. Appleton, 1867) vol. 2, p. 349

“The history of the race is but that of the individual "writ large."”

George Henry Lewes

Vol. 2, p. 135
The Foundations of a Creed (1874-5)

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

George Henry Lewes

G. P. R. James Henry Masterton (1832; repr. London: Richard Bentley, 1837) p. 297
Misattributed

“Our native susceptibilities and acquired tastes determine which of the many qualities in an object shall most impress us, and be most clearly recalled. One man remembers the combustible properties of a substance, which to another is memorable for its polarising property; to one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezveus for lovers.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

“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.”

George Henry Lewes

Vol. 1, p. 23
The Foundations of a Creed (1874-5)

“It is always understood as an expression of condemnation when anything in Literature or Art is said to be done for effect; and yet to produce an effect is the aim and end of both.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

“There are many justifications of silence; there can be none of insincerity.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

“Shakespeare is a good raft whereon to float securely down the stream of time; fasten yourself to that and your immortality is safe.”

George Henry Lewes

On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 60

“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.”

George Henry Lewes

Vol. 1, p. 2
The Foundations of a Creed (1874-5)

“I wish to guard the Principle of Vision from certain misconceptions which might arise on a simple statement of it. The principle insists on the artist assuring himself that he distinctly sees what he attempts to represent. What he sees, and how he represents it, depend on other principles. To make even this principle of Vision thoroughly intelligible in its application to all forms of Literature and Art, it must be considered in connection with the two other principles — Sincerity and Beauty, which are involved in all successful works.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

“The discoverer and the poet are inventors; and they are so because their mental vision detects the unapparent, unsuspected facts, almost as vividly as ocular vision rests on the apparent and familiar.”

George Henry Lewes

The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)

“The only cure for grief is action.”

George Henry Lewes

Source: The Spanish Drama (1846), Ch. 2

“Science is the systematic classification of experience.”

George Henry Lewes

The Physical Basis of Mind (1877; repr. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891) p. 4

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

George Henry Lewes

The Physiology of Common Life (1859-60; repr. New York: D. Appleton, 1867) vol. 2, p. 322