
“At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
Letter to George and Thomas Keats (December 22, 1817)
Letters (1817–1820)
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John Keats 211
English Romantic poet 1795–1821Related quotes


1990s, The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish
On the Cognition of Beasts (De la connoissance des bestes, 1672); quoted in Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697), London, 1737, vol. 4, ch. Rorarius, p. 907 https://books.google.it/books?id=JmtXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA907.

“Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?”
Source: 1910s, The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

L’homme est ainsi fait, que sa santé est un effet purement négatif; une fois le besoin de manger satisfait, on se figure difficilement les horreurs de la faim; il faut les éprouver, pour les comprendre.
Source: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Ch. XLII: Headlong speed upward through the horrors of darkness

“I never knew I was capable of being ridiculous over a man. It's a relief.”
Source: Gone Girl

“Man has no nature”
History as a System (1962)

Ethicae Christianae, Book II, Ch. 1; as quoted in Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697), London, 1737, Vol. 4, Ch. Rorarius, p. 905 https://books.google.it/books?id=JmtXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA905.