Lionel Trilling Quotes & Sayings

“Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.”

“We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.”

“Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.”

“Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.”

“The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.”

“Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.”

“The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.”

“It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.”

“The immature artist imitates. Mature artists steal.”

“It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief.”