“The verse adorn again
Fierce War, and faithful Love,
And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.”
III. 3. lines 125-127
The Bard (1757)
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Thomas Gray81
English poet, historian 1716–1771Related quotes
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer
"Brave Words for a Startling Occasion" (1953), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 153.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
1930s, Address at San Diego Exposition (1935)
Context: Several centuries ago the greatest writer in history described the two most menacing clouds that hang over human government and human society as "malice domestic and fierce foreign war." We are not rid of these dangers but we can summon our intelligence to meet them. Never was there more genuine reason for Americans to face down these two causes of fear. "Malice domestic" from time to time will come to you in the shape of those who would raise false issues, pervert facts, preach the gospel of hate, and minimize the importance of public action to secure human rights or spiritual ideals. There are those today who would sow these seeds, but your answer to them is in the possession of the plain facts of our present condition.
“A play is fiction — and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”
Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright
The New York Times (18 September 1966)
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XV
Misquoted as "Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." by Laurence J. Peter in "Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time", among many others.
Following the Equator (1897)
Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
No. 10.
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series II (1866)
“Non-fiction contains facts, fiction contains truth.”
Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist
Next Testament (Boom Studios, 2014)
“Happy who in his verse can gently steer
From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century
The Art of Poetry, canto i, line 75.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)