Surely the novel should be a form of art - but art was not enough. It must contain not only the perfection of art, but the imperfection of nature. Ellen Glasgow More Quotes by Ellen Glasgow More Quotes From Ellen Glasgow ... beauty, like ecstasy, has always been hostile to the commonplace. And the commonplace, under its popular label of the normal,has been the supreme authority for Homo sapiens since the days when he was probably arboreal. Ellen Glasgow labels normal beauty When this immediate evil power has been defeated, we shall not yet have won the long battle with the elemental barbarities. Another Hitler, it may be an invisible adversary, will attempt, again, and yet again, to destroy our frail civilization. Is it true, I wonder, that the only way to escape a war is to be in it? When one is a part of an actuality does the imagination find a release? Ellen Glasgow evil war civilization ... though not invariably the worst choice, war is always an obscene horror. Ellen Glasgow horror choices war ... the life of the mind is reality, and love without romantic illumination is a spiritless matter. Ellen Glasgow illumination mind reality I have watchedmany literary fashions shoot up and blossom, and then fade and drop.... Yet with the many that I have seen comeand go, I have never yet encountered a mode of thinking that regarded itself as simply a changing fashion, and not as an infallible approach to the right culture. Ellen Glasgow thoughtful fashion thinking What I hated even more than the conflict was the lurid spectacle of a world of unreason. Ellen Glasgow hate war world I was always a feminist, for I liked intellectual revolt as much as I disliked physical violence. On the whole, I think women havelost something precious, but have gained, immeasurably, by the passing of the old order. Ellen Glasgow feminist order thinking Nothingis so ungrateful as a rising generation; yet, if there is any faintest glimmer of light ahead of us in the present, itwas kindled by the intellectual fires that burned long before us. Ellen Glasgow light fire long The attraction of horror is a mental, or even an intellectual, excitement, but the fascination of the repulsive, so noticeable incontemporary writing, can spring openly from some rotted substance within our civilization. Ellen Glasgow writing spring civilization Although the primitive in art may be both interesting and impressive, as portrayed in American fiction it is conspicuous for dullness alone. Drab persons living drab lives, observed by drab minds and reported in drab writing. Ellen Glasgow writing art interesting I had no place in any coterie, or in any reciprocal self-advertising. I stood alone. I stood outside. I wanted only to learn. I wanted only to write better. Ellen Glasgow independence self writing ... the novel, as a living force, if not as a work of art, owes an incalculable debt to what we call, mistakenly, the new psychology, to Freud, in his earlier interpretations, and more truly, I think, to Jung. Ellen Glasgow psychology art thinking I would write of the universal, not the provincial, in human nature.... I would write of characters, not of characteristics. Ellen Glasgow human-nature writing character My first reading of Tolstoy affected me as a revelation from heaven, as the trumpet of the judgment. What he made me feel was notthe desire to imitate, but the conviction that imitation was futile. Ellen Glasgow reading desire heaven Some women enjoy unhappy love affairs, you know, though I have always felt that they are greatly overrated. Ellen Glasgow affair enjoy unhappy The pathos of life is worse than the tragedy. Ellen Glasgow pathos tragedy life-is a self-made martyr is a poor thing. Ellen Glasgow sacrifice poor self audacity is of all qualities the most youthful. Ellen Glasgow audacity quality risk you can't fit the same religion to every man any mo' than you can the same pair of breeches. The big man takes the big breeches an' the little man takes the small ones, an' it's jest the same with religion. It may be cut after one pattern, but it's might apt to get its shape from the wearer inside. Why, thar ain't any text so peaceable that it ain't drawn blood from somebody. Ellen Glasgow cutting men blood The only natural human beings seem to be those who are making trouble. Ellen Glasgow humans trouble natural
