Essayists From The United States

"I often muse upon the life of the true artist until it redeems to my mind, the more prosaic aspects of human existence."

"One reason why the most famous portraits of the old masters, ... are so life-like, and inspire so deep a sense of their authenticity, is doubtless that the originals were objects of affection, and familiar by constant association and sympathy, to the minds of the artists."

"It has been said that self-respect is the gate of heaven, and the most cursory observation shows that a degree of reserve adds vastly to the latent force of character."

"Whatever is genuine in social relations endures, despite of time, error, absence, and destiny; and that which has no inherent vitality had better die at once. A great poet has truly declared that constancy is no virtue, but a fact."

"Humor is doubtless intended as the safety-valve of concentrative minds, and its prevalence, in the English race, is owing to their reserve of character, which finds no vent through a mercurial temperament like the French and Italians."

"To a nice ear, the quality of a voice is singularly affecting. Its depth seems to be allied to feeling; at least, the contralto notes alone give an adequate sense of pathos. They are born near the heart."

"It has been often remarked that earnest men excel in humor, and we perceive how benign is the law which thus tempers elements of fearful intensity."

"A popular epithet usually goes nearer the truth than we are apt to imagine."

"There they breathe a congenial atmosphere. Often subsisting upon the merest pittance, indulging in every vagary of costume, they wander over the land and yield themselves freely to the spirit of adventure and the luxury of art."

"This miserable habit of our times is vividly illustrated by the manner in which those next most sacred things to mortals, books, are treated."

"There are no greater forgers in the universe, than cunning mannerists. Their whole lives are false. The loveliest of human attributes, the beautiful, the winning virtue of sincerity, abides not with them. They have abjured the profession of humanity."

"We discern beyond the smile and the honeyed word, and are sickened at the self-created hollowness of a human heart."

"Travel gives a character of experience to our knowledge, and brings the figures on the tablet of memory into strong relief."

"There is a strength of quiet endurance as significant of courage as the most daring feats of prowess."

"For Truth makes holy Love's illusive dreams, And their best promise constantly redeems."

"A pilgrimage is an admirable remedy for over-fastidiousness and sickly refinement."

"There is more or less of pathos in all true beauty. The delight it awakens has an undefinable and, as it were, luxurious sadness, which is perhaps one element of its might. It may be that this feeling springs from a sense of unattained good, of a perfection of being quite at variance with the present, which the beautiful never fails to suggest."

"Our times might not inaptly be designated as the age of traveling. Its records form no insignificant branch of the literature of the day."

"There is a policy in manner. I have heard one, not inexperienced in the pursuit of fame, give it his earnest support, as being the surest passport to absolute and brilliant success."

"Let us recognise the beauty and power of true enthusiasm; and whatever we may do to enlighten ourselves and others, guard against checking or chilling a single earnest sentiment."

"Give me the boon of Love! I ask no more for Fame; Far better one unpurchased heart Than Glory's proudest name. Why wake a fever in the blood, Or damp the spirit now, To gain a wreath whose leaves shall wave Above a withered brow?"

"Credulity is perhaps a weakness almost inseparable from eminently truthful characters."

"A work of art is said to be perfect in proportion as it does not remind the spectator of the process by which it was created."

"Society is too often at war with love. Thousands of human spirits created to assimilate, to afford mutual comfort and inspiration, to interpret each other, and find in sympathy a balm and motive that will render them superior to vicissitude; thousands of human spirits cross and recross each other's paths, severed by the barriers of vain custom and arbitrary opinion."

"Philosophers have an unfortunate habit of living a long time."

"“Let us speak of Plato, and the picture he paints of people and their inability to rule themselves,” Ampharete began. This drew Heron’s attention from the sea. Mobs often make stupid decisions, on the basis of emotion rather than reason. Do you think Plato is wrong?” “Plato’s view that only the most wise should rule can justify any tyrant or group of tyrant who happen to be in power.”"

"Socrates grunted. “It seems the future may be more barbaric than the present, at least as far as you are concerned. Maybe those who believe the golden age is behind us are right.”"

"Sometimes murkiness of motives can be mistaken for intelligence."

"Ampharete just smiled. “Might we go someplace else to converse? Much as I love this magnificent library, I do not feel completely at ease here—too many wise people walking about.” “Wisdom makes you uneasy?” Ampharete kept her smile. “When combined with prying eyes, yes.”"

"Appleton was getting to the point where he could no longer tell if he was reasoning well or imagining well."

"Marilynne Robinson says she read Moby-Dick when she was nine. I wish I could say such a thing! I was reading horse books, dog books, the Baba Yaga stories in : my was my most treasured possession, but I didn’t read with much discrimination."

"What would be the point to discuss the craft of Jean Rhys, Janet Frame, Christina Stead, Malcolm Lowry, all of whose works can teach us little about technique, and whose way of touching us is simply by exploding on the lintel of our minds. It is not technique that guided them. Their craft consisted of desire. We are American writers, absorbing the American experience. We must absorb its heat, the recklessness and ruthlessness, the grotesqueries and cruelties. We must reflect the sprawl and smallness of America, its greedy optimism and dangerous sentimentality. And we must write with a pen—in Mark Twain’s phrase—warmed up in hell. We might have something then, worthy, necessary; a real literature instead of the Botox escapist lit told in the shiny prolix comedic style that has come to define us."

"In July of 1995, the Copa, along with the chic restaurant Antonia's, burnt to the ground in the traditional suspicious, middle-of-the-night fire. Built in 1917 as a movie theater, it had been wearily showing Deep Throat for a decade before it was transformed in the '80's into a glossy gay cruise bar."

"Let us candidly confess our indebtedness to the needle. How many hours of sorrow has it softened, how many bitter irritations calmed, how many confused thoughts reduced to order, how many life-plans sketched in purple!"

"Let woman once reject the absurd notion that she was created for happiness, let her constitute herself instead a creator of it, let her accept with joy the fact that this is a working-day world; then she will no longer strive to escape from labor, discipline, or sorrow, but will gladly hail each in its turn as part of God's appointed teaching, a shadow crossing the sunshine to show that it is bright."

"I have seen no Hindu who seemed to me prepared intellectually and morally for the freedom he would find in American society; nor are Americans prepared for the air of innocence and exaltation worn by very undeserving Orientals."

"I cannot help directing your attention to the significant fact that while the word "mistress," applied to a woman, serves at once to mark her out for reprobation, there is no corresponding term which, applied to man, produces the same effect; and this because the interests of the state are still paramount to the interests of the soul itself."

"We claim for women a share of the educational opportunities offered to man, because we believe that they will never be thoroughly taught until they are taught at the same time and in the same classes."

"There is, between the sexes, a law of incessant reciprocal action, of which God avails himself in the constitution of the family, when He permits brothers and sisters to nestle about the same hearthstone. Its ministration is essential to the best educational results. Our own educational institutions should rest upon this divine basis."

"Consider the as houseguest. Is it a good idea to invite someone into your home whose occupation it is to observe everything?"

"I write what I am interested in, and hope it will find an audience. I don’t know that it would make a lot of sense to do it the other way around."

"Scholes mentioned and quoted from the “Following the Plot” essay, so the first thing I did was get my hands on a copy of The Afterlife: Essays and Criticism by Penelope Fitzgerald so I could read the essay in full. I guess mostly simply, I took Fitzgerald at her word. In that essay she says letters had arrived that dangled the possibility of an inheritance, and she decided to make the trip to Mexico to see about it. She and were quite desperate at that point, living beyond their means in London, editing a failing literary journal, with two young children and a third on the way. ... Penelope and Desmond stayed together until his death in 1976. Her first novel was written to entertain him as he declined. Despite all the problems, I think they must have loved each other deeply."

"“Altruism can be surprisingly gratifying,” it remarked. “No wonder humans dabble with it.”"

"You older types are mired in the minds you grew up with, a real handicap in a rapidly changing universe. The future is a game for the young and the hungry—I’m five months old myself, and on the cutting edge."

"Let a neatness as exquisite as womanly, and as polished as that of Charlotte Brontë, pervade not only our homes, but consecrate our own personal appearance; then may we safely wear the livery of the schools."

"Follow your obsessions. It feels lonely and crazy sometimes, but if you believe in them other people will too, and you will create something enduring."

"Yasuhiro had studied and thought long about combat, which he knew always deteriorated into chaos whatever the battle plan."

"You may regard this as an outrage of the spirit, but it is that or die, and I decline to offer you the choice."

"The universe comprised strife between forces, and there was no use seeking a benign still center to mirror the unfolding peace of a mother’s love."

"“People were killed,” Galvanix said wonderingly. “That doesn’t bother anyone,” said Rajee bluntly. “Among twelve billion, international relations are too important to be threatened by skirmishes.”"