"I will venture to give one word by way of advice, and to express a hope that the study of the ancient classics will not be abandoned when they are no longer compulsory. Believe me, that to the man who wishes to study politics, or the art of persuasion, nothing can be more necessary than to imbue his mind with the spirit of the ancient poets and historians, that he may be able to infuse into his own arguments and compositions, and to draw from that pure and crystal fountain, some of the copious diction, high sentiment, and masculine thought, which so eminently distinguished those great men, but whom there is no hope of successfully rivalling."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Lord Stanley, speech at his installation as Lord Rector of Glasgow University (21 December 1834), quoted in The Times (22 December 1834), p. 3
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Classics
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Classics
19 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Classics →
Related Quotes
"Something that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read."
"The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrad…"
"Thinking, meditating, imagining are not anomalous acts – they are the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glor…"
"I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking i…"
"People who read only the classics are sure to remain up-to-date."
"The way to become a classic is by not resembling the classics in any way."
"It goes against the grain for me to do what so often happens, to speak inhumanly about the great as if a few millenni…"
"The neo-conservative critics of leftist critics of mass culture ridicule the protest against Bach as background music…"
"At home these men’s works [Kant, Schiller and Goethe] were kept in the bookcase with the green glass panes in Papa’s …"
"The more rigorously criticism historicizes a work of art, in the sense of lodging it in the context of the moment of …"