Lafcadio Hearn Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Some persons have ventured to say that it is only since Englishmen ceased to believe in the Bible that they began to discover how beautiful it was.”

“The proverbial philosophy of a people helps us to understand more about them than any other kind of literature.”

“Any idealism is a proper subject for art.”

“Contemporary literature in the West has shown some signs of ethical change.”

“At last, in 1611, was made, under the auspices of King James, the famous King James version; and this is the great literary monument of the English language.”

“But the history of the changes produced by a universal idea is not a history of changes in the individual, but of changes brought about by the successive efforts of millions of individuals in the course of many generations.”

“In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development.”

“There is one type of ideal woman very seldom described in poetry - the old maid, the woman whom sorrow or misfortune prevents from fulfilling her natural destiny.”

“Perhaps there is an idea among Japanese students that one general difference between Japanese and Western poetry is that the former cultivates short forms and the latter longer ones, gut this is only in part true.”

“I often imagine that the longer he studies English literature the more the Japanese student must be astonished at the extraordinary predominance given to the passion of love both in fiction and in poetry.”