“Bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts,”

—  Northrop Frye

"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 3: Giants in Time
Context: One of the most obvious uses [of literature], I think, is its encouragement of tolerance. In the imagination our own beliefs are also only possibilities, but we can also see the possibilities in the beliefs of others. Bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them as also possibilities.

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Northrop Frye photo
Northrop Frye 137
Canadian literary critic and literary theorist 1912–1991

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