Literature Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old literature quotes, literature sayings, and literature proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Literature is the orchestration of platitudes. Thornton Wilder
Literature is the thought of thinking Souls. Thomas Carlyle
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious men who are deprived of honours or of wealth. Isaac D'Israeli
It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. Ernest Hemingway
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. Cyril Connolly
A great literature is chiefly the product of inquiring minds in revolt against the immovable certainties of the nation. H L Mencken
Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason. Andre Gide
In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others. Andre Maurois
Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation. Robert Fitzgerald
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. G K Chesterton
It is only by introducing the young to great literature, drama and music, and to the excitement of great science that we open to them the possibilities that lie within the human spirit enable them to see visions and dream dreams. Sir William Eric Kinloch Anderson
Literature is, in fact, the fruit of leisure. Amelia Blanford Edwards
Literature stands related to Man as Science stands to Nature; it is his history. John Henry Newman
The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order. Jean Cocteau
An interchange of literature is the conversation of nations. Edward Counsel
Literature is subservient to nothing but truth. Gao Xingjian
Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way. Salman Rushdie
Literature: The art of putting old words into new places. Edward Blanchard
Literature is a way to understand life, to appreciate living and therefore to participate in life to the fullest of your potential. Eric Chock
That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Literature is not a subject of study, but an object of study; the fact that it consists of words, as we have seen, makes us confuse it with the talking verbal disciplines. Northrop Frye
Literature, we said, is conscious mythology; it creates an autonomous world that gives us an imaginative perspective on the actual one. Northrop Frye
Literature is at the center of those because literature is the great laboratory of myths, that is, the statement of reality in terms of man's hopes and desires and fears. Northrop Frye
Literature is an art of words, and the student of it may be interested primarily either in the art or in the words. Northrop Frye
Literature is the total body of stories and symbols that provides hypotheses or models of human behavior and experience. Northrop Frye
Literature is founded on the metaphor that arrests logic and the myth that arrests history; its works are objects of contemplation. Northrop Frye
Literature is an instrument of a culture, not a summary of it. Cynthia Ozick
Literature is a lie that tells the truth. Dorothy Allison
Remarks are not literature. Gertrude Stein
The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. Elizabeth Drew