Every one who has seriously investigated a novel question, who has really interrogated Nature with a view to a distinct answer, will bear me out in saying that it requires intense and sustained effort of imagination. George Henry Lewes More Quotes by George Henry Lewes More Quotes From George Henry Lewes Language, after all, is only the use of symbols, and Art also can only affect us through symbols. George Henry Lewes language use art The object of Literature is to instruct, to animate, or to amuse. George Henry Lewes hygiene objects literature Mathematicians do not write for the circulating library. George Henry Lewes library writing science Science is not addressed to poets. George Henry Lewes accounts poet science It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public. George Henry Lewes views doe art Metaphysical ghosts cannot be killed, because they cannot be touched; but they may be dispelled by dispelling the twilight in which shadows and solidities are easily confounded. The Vital Principle is an entity of this ghostly kind; and although the daylight has dissipated it, and positive Biology is no longer vexed with its visitations, it nevertheless reappears in another shape in the shadowy region of mystery which surrounds biological and all other questions. George Henry Lewes shadow twilight science The magic of the pen lies in the concentration of your thoughts upon one object. George Henry Lewes concentration magic lying If a work of art is placed before me, I believe I can enjoy it; but I do not overlook the fact, that Art is one thing, another thing Amusement; and that people do like amusements, and will run after it. George Henry Lewes running believe art Genius is rarely able to give any account of its own processes. George Henry Lewes genius giving science Not only the individual experience slowly acquired, but the accumulated experience of the race, organized in language, condensed in instruments and axioms, and in what may be called the inherited intuitions--these form the multiple unity which is expressed in the abstract term "experience. George Henry Lewes unity intuition race Roger Bacon, a disciple of the Arabs, also insisted on the primary necessity of Mathematics, without which no other science can be known; yet by Mathematics it is clear that he meant something very different from what we mean, including under that head even dancing, singing, gesticulation, and performance on musical instruments. George Henry Lewes musical dancing mean The discoverer and the poet are inventors; and they are so because their mental vision detects the unapparent, unsuspected facts, almost as vividly as ocular vision rests on the apparent and familiar. George Henry Lewes vision science facts It is always understood as an expression of condemnation when anything in Literature or Art is said to be done for effect; and yet to produce an effect is the aim and end of both. George Henry Lewes done expression art The mathematician who is without value to mathematicians, the thinker who is obscure or meaningless to thinkers, the dramatist who fails to move the pit, may be wise, may be eminent, but as an author he has failed. George Henry Lewes wise may moving Except in the rare cases of great dynamic thinkers whose thoughts are as turning-points in the history of our race, it is by Style that writers gain distinction, by Style they secure their immortality. George Henry Lewes style gains race Over the meeting of the lovers I draw a veil. The burst of rapture with which they clasped each other in a wild embrace -- the many inquiries -- the fond regrets and thrilling hopes -- it is out of my power to convey. Let me, therefore, leave them to their happiness. George Henry Lewes inquiry veils regret When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent. George Henry Lewes views law men The prosperity of a book lies in the minds of readers. Public knowledge and public taste fluctuate; and there come times when works which were once capable of instructing and delighting thousands lose their power, and works, before neglected, emerge into renown. George Henry Lewes mind book lying The moral nature of man is more sacred in my eyes than his intellectual nature. I know they cannot be divorced - that without intelligence we should be brutes - but it is the tendency of our gaping, wondering dispositions to give pre-eminence to those faculties which most astonish us. Strength of character seldom, if ever, astonishes; goodness, lovingness, and quiet self-sacrifice, are worth all the talents in the world. George Henry Lewes sacrifice eye character A man must be himself convinced if he is to convince others. The prophet must be his own disciple, or he will make none. Enthusiasm is contagious: belief creates belief. George Henry Lewes belief enthusiasm men
