
“He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.”
Life of Schiller.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
1830s, Sir Walter Scott (1838)
“He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.”
Life of Schiller.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)
Saturday Review (22 March 1958)
Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 388.
Source: 1950s, The Skills of the Economist, 1958, p. 183
“A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty.”
Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 25
For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture
The Province of History (c. 1856), Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 620
1850s
Context: The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian — the humble listener — there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Poet
“Preoccupation with efficacy is the main obstacle to a poetic, elegant, robust and heroic life.”
Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 29