“The ordinary man casts a shadow. In a way we do not quite understand, the man of genius casts light. Instinctively, we flinch from this light. We assure ourselves that genius must pay a terrible price. Often history bears us out: the creator, the supreme artist, the master of politics carries the scars of his greatness.”
"Not a Preface, but a Word of Thanks," foreword to Unfinished Journey by Yehudi Menuhin (1977).
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George Steiner 74
American writer 1929–2020Related quotes
To Leon Goldensohn, July 20, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 37
“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
Source: What is Philosophy? (1964), pp. 16-17
“The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why?”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), III Six books on Light and Shade
Context: The body which is nearest to the light casts the largest shadow, and why? If an object placed in front of a single light is very close to it you will see that it casts a very large shadow on the opposite wall, and the farther you remove the object from the light the smaller will the image of the shadow become.
“If our so-called facts are changing shadows, they are shadows cast by the light of constant truth.”
Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Context: If our so-called facts are changing shadows, they are shadows cast by the light of constant truth. So too in religion we are repelled by that confident theological doctrine... but we need not turn aside from the measure of light that comes into our experience showing us a Way through the unseen world.<!--IX, p.91
Eulogy for Winston Churchill, delivered from the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, during the latter's funeral, January 30, 1965
Second Term as Prime Minister (1949-1966)
Source: http://australianpolitics.com/1965/01/30/robert-menzies-eulogy-for-winston-churchill.html
Source: Sex and Character (1903), p. 139.