"A superior man’s struggle in the world is not with exterior lions, trusts, margraves, policemen, rivals in love, German spies, radicals and tornadoes, but with the obscure, atavistic impulses within him—the impulses, weaknesses and limitations that war with his notion of what life should be. Nine times out of ten he succumbs. Nine times out of ten he must yield to the dead hand. Nine times out of ten his aspiration is almost infinitely above his achievement. The result is that we see him sliding downhill—his ideals breaking up, his hope petering out, his character in decay. Character in decay is thus the theme of the great bulk of superior fiction."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
H. L. Mencken, “The National Letters,” Prejudices: Second Series (New York: 1920), p. 43
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fiction
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Fiction
47 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Fiction →
Related Quotes
"Nunc fabularum cur sit inventum genus, Brevi decebo. Servitus obnoxia, Quia, quae volebat, non audebat dicere, Affect…"
"A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irrit…"
"I do not blame the words, for they are, as it were, choice and precious vessels, but I do deplore the wine of error w…"
"(You once said, "Fiction is NOT autobiography in a party dress." OK, then what is it?) NH: It's what happens after yo…"
"We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch …"
"People substituted writing (fiction) for what was once spiritual life, poetry (chaotic words) for actual ecstasies. A…"
"Fiction is not imagination. It is what anticipates imagination by giving it the form of reality. This is quite opposi…"
"The author of any work of fiction that is any good takes me so fully into his orbit that he becomes my friend; I thin…"
"Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality."
"Fiction is fact distilled into truth."