“It is generally thought very ridiculous to pretend to write an Heroic Poem, or a fine Discourse upon any Subject, without understanding the Propriety of the Language wrote in; and to me it seems no less ridiculous for one to pretend to make a good Picture without understanding Perspective…”

—  Brook Taylor

New Principles of Linear Perspective (1715, 1749)

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 "It is generally thought very ridiculous to pretend to write an Heroic Poem, or a fine Discourse upon any Subject, witho…" by Brook Taylor?
Brook Taylor photo
Brook Taylor 9
English mathematician 1685–1731

Related quotes

Salvador Dalí photo
William Gibson photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Ze Frank photo

“Any individual entity that pretends to understand the rules that guide this space is under an illusion.”

Ze Frank (1972) American online performance artist

"The Show" (www.zefrank.com/theshow/)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Life of Schiller.
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Without its assiduity to the ridiculous, would the human race have lasted more than a single generation?”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

Richelle Mead photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“The world has so many poems in it, it has never seemed to me very smart to force one more upon the world. If there isn’t one there to write, you just leave it alone.”

A.R. Ammons (1926–2001) American poet

Paris Review interview (1996)
Context: Unless I have something already moving through the mind, I don’t go to the typewriter at all. The world has so many poems in it, it has never seemed to me very smart to force one more upon the world. If there isn’t one there to write, you just leave it alone.

Related topics