“We shall not busy ourselves with what men ought to have admired, what they ought to have written, what they ought to have thought, but with what they did think, write, admire.”

—  George Saintsbury

Vol. 1, pp. 4–5
A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We shall not busy ourselves with what men ought to have admired, what they ought to have written, what they ought to ha…" by George Saintsbury?
George Saintsbury photo
George Saintsbury14
British literary critic 1845–1933

Related quotes

Francis Bacon photo

“We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.”

Francis Bacon book The Advancement of Learning

Book II, xxi, 9
The Advancement of Learning (1605)

Jean Jacques Rousseau photo

“To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher

Matthew Arnold photo

“We do not what we ought,
What we ought not, we do,
And lean upon the thought
That chance will bring us through.”

Matthew Arnold book Empedocles on Etna

Act I, sc. ii
Empedocles on Etna (1852)

Gore Vidal photo

“Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

"Thomas Love Peacock: The Novel of Ideas" (1980)
1980s, The Second American Revolution (1983)
Variant: In any case, write what you know will always be excellent advice to those who ought not to write at all.
Source: The Essential Gore Vidal

William Cobbett photo

“Sit down to write what you have thought, and not to think what you shall write.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Page 180.
A Grammar of the English Language (1818)

Walter Raleigh photo

“Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to choose such an opportunity for writing as it may be lawful to think what they will, and write what they think, which is a rare happiness of the time.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

Source: The Cabinet Council (published 1658), Chapter 25

Pythagoras photo

“Do not even think of doing what ought not to be done.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

"Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus" (1904)
Florilegium

Jerome photo

“True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.”

Jerome (345–420) Catholic saint and Doctor of the Church

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge photo

“We must not be guilty of taking the law into our own hands, and converting it from what it really is to what we think it ought to be.”

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge (1820–1894) British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician

1 Cababe & Ellis' Q. B. D. Rep. 136.
Reg. v. Ramsey (1883)

William Hazlitt photo

“The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

&quot;On the Ignorance of the Learned&quot; <br class="br"> Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

Related topics