“For the creation of a masterwork of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the moment.”
The Functions of Criticism at the Present Time (1864)
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Matthew Arnold 166
English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… 1822–1888Related quotes
Speech to the Massachusetts Bible Society (1849-05-28), quoted in Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions, Little, Brown & Co., 1852, p. 172 http://books.google.com/books?id=tKohAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA172&dq=robert+winthrop+bible+bayonet#PPA172,M1
Context: All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is Religion which must support the State.
The Hindu, "1947, first-hand ", Sunday, Aug 15, 2004 Available Online http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2004/08/15/stories/2004081500530300.htm
2000s
“We have the power to chose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.”
Ted Talks http://www.byronkatie.com/newsletter_april_08.html
“Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.”
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), Rousseau and the Sentimentalists
“Grace is a power that comes in and transforms a moment into something better”