“What lies beyond man's word is eloquent of God. That is the joyously defeated recognition expressed in the poems of St. John of the Cross and of the mystic tradition.”
"Silence and the Poet" (1966).
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
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George Steiner 74
American writer 1929–2020Related quotes

"Up the Ladder from Charm to Vogue", p. 186
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)
Rothenberg and Antin interview (1958)
Context: You can’t become a saint by taking dope, stealing your friends’ typewriters, giving girls chancres, not supporting your wife and children, and then reading St. John of the Cross. All of that, when it’s happened before, has typified the collapse of civilization … and today the social fabric is falling apart so fast, it makes your head swim.

Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 388.

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)

Introduction
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
Context: This is what Wisdom means: To be changed without the slightest effort on your part, to be transformed, believe it or not, merely by waking to the reality that is not words, that lies beyond the reach of words. If you are fortunate enough to be Awakened thus, you will know why the finest language is the one that is not spoken, the finest action is the one that is not done and the finest change is the one that is not willed.

“Even more than in a poem, it is the aphorism that the word is god.”
Drawn and Quartered (1983)