Source: Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
“The novels and poems which proceed from writers in the grip of this barren pessimism are of the kind which make narrow moralists fume, and use words like "decadence"; the writers rejoice, because making narrow moralists (who are usually frightened people) hop with rage is a sign that they have hit a mark, and they do not understand how poor and easy a mark it is.”
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
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Robertson Davies 282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995Related quotes
2:579
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)
from "Elegy for Wonderland", by Ben Hecht, Esquire Magazine, March 1959
“It is a poor thing for the writer to take on that which he doesn’t understand.”
Letter to A.S. Suvorin (October 27, 1888)
Letters
Quoted in: Eric Shanes (2012) The Life and Masterworks of J.M.W. Turner, p. 23
undated quotes
Book I, Ch. 2
Progress and Poverty (1879)
Context: It is too narrow an understanding of production which confines it merely to the making of things. Production includes not merely the making of things, but the bringing of them to the consumer. The merchant or storekeeper is thus as truly a producer as is the manufacturer, or farmer, and his stock or capital is as much devoted to production as is theirs.