If one defends the bourgeois, philistine virtues, one does not defend them merely from the demonism or bohemianism of the artist but from the present bourgeoisie itself. Lionel Trilling More Quotes by Lionel Trilling More Quotes From Lionel Trilling Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal. Lionel Trilling cynicalimmatureart Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere. Lionel Trilling swimmingconsciouswind Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood. Lionel Trilling obscurityadvantageunderstanding Some paradox of our natures leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them the objects of our pity , then of our wisdom , ultimately of our coercion. Lionel Trilling fellow-mangoes-onmen 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. Lionel Trilling cynicalheartbelieve Ideology is not the product of thought; it is the habit or the ritual of showing respect for certain formulas to which, for various reasons having to do with emotional safety, we have very strong ties of whose meaning and consequences in actuality we have no clear understanding. Lionel Trilling emotionalstrongideas What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have. Lionel Trilling painshapesartist The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy. Lionel Trilling fantasymarkpoet The definitions of humanism are many, but let us here take it to be the attitude of those men who think it an advantage to live in society, and, at that, in a complex and highly developed society, and who believe that man fulfills his nature and reaches his proper stature in this circumstance. The personal virtues which humanism cherishes are intelligence, amenity, and tolerance; the particular courage it asks for is that which is exercised in the support of these virtues. The qualities of intelligence which it chiefly prizes are modulation and flexibility. Lionel Trilling attitudemenbelieve The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive. Lionel Trilling mutationacceptanceself Unless we insist that politics is imagination and mind, we will learn that imagination and mind are politics, and of a kind we will not like. Lionel Trilling kindimaginationmind It is one thing, then, to say, "The Bible contains the religion revealed by God ," and quite another to say, "Whatever is contained in the Bible is religion, and was revealed by God." If the latter be accepted, metaphor and allegory become literal statements and the errors and absurdities of bibliolatry follow. Lionel Trilling acceptedmetaphorerrors We live, understandably enough, with the sense of urgency; our clock, like Baudelaire's, has had the hands removed and bears the legend, "It is later than you think." But with us it is always a little too late for mind, yet never too late for honest stupidity; always a little too late for understanding, never too late for righteous, bewildered wrath; always too late for thought, never too late for naïve moralizing. We seem to like to condemn our finest but not our worst qualities by pitting them against the exigency of time. Lionel Trilling wrathhandsthinking It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief. Lionel Trilling disbelieflifeart A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of government as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by government. Somewhere in between and In gradations is the group that has the sense that gov't exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly. Lionel Trilling governmentclassthinking At the bottom of at least popular Marxism there has always been a kind of disgust with humanity as it is and a perfect faith in humanity as it is to be. Lionel Trilling kindhumanityperfect The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals. Lionel Trilling immaturestealingartist This desire to fashion, to shape, a self and a life has all but gone from a contemporary culture whose emphasis, paradoxically enough, is so much on self. Lionel Trilling fashionselfdesire We properly judge a critic's virtue not by his freedom from error but by the nature of the mistakes he does make, for he makes them, if he is worth reading, because he has in mind something besides his perceptions about art in itself - he has in mind the demands that he makes upon life. Lionel Trilling readingmistakeart Everything which the economist takes from you in the way of life and humanity, he restores to you in the form of money and wealth. Lionel Trilling wealthhumanityway
