The American mind, unlike the English, is not formed by books, but, as Carl Sandburg once said to me, by newspapers and the Bible. Van Wyck Brooks More Quotes by Van Wyck Brooks More Quotes From Van Wyck Brooks Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere. Van Wyck Brooks vanity jealousy people Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright. Van Wyck Brooks virtue genius found How delightful is the company of generous people, who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in the world about them. People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding. But magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And what is more, they find it everywhere. Van Wyck Brooks vanity motivational people No man should ever publish a book until he has first read it to a woman. Van Wyck Brooks men book firsts Earnest people are often people who habitually look on the serious side of things that have no serious side. Van Wyck Brooks sides people looks As against having beautiful workshops, studies, etc., one writes best in a cellar on a rainy day. Van Wyck Brooks rainy-day writing beautiful Better the fragrant herb of wit and a little cream of affability than all the pretty cups in the world. Van Wyck Brooks herbs littles world People of small calibre are always carping. How affected so-and-so is! Don't you think he is silly? He was certainly quite mistaken about this or that. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or their prowess or good breeding. Van Wyck Brooks prowess bent people Once you have a point of view all history will back you up. Van Wyck Brooks point-of-view views There is no stopping the world's tendency to throw off imposed restraints, the religious authority that is based on the ignorance of the many, the political authority that is based on the knowledge of the few. Van Wyck Brooks political ignorance religious Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us. Van Wyck Brooks ancestry family self-esteem The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses. Van Wyck Brooks creativity men war The instructed man is ashamed to pronounce in an Orphic manner what everybody knows, and because he is silent people think he is making fun of them. Van Wyck Brooks fun men thinking No one in this country has any root anywhere; we don't live in America, we board here, we are like spiders that run over the surface of the water. Van Wyck Brooks roots running country Nothing is sadder than the consequences of having worldly standards without worldly means. Van Wyck Brooks worldly standards mean It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans. Van Wyck Brooks swans wells profound Longfellow is to poetry what the barrel-organ is to music. Van Wyck Brooks organs barrels The writer is important only by dint of the territory he colonizes. Van Wyck Brooks territory important writing No one is fit to judge a book until he has rounded Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, until he has bumped into two or three icebergs, until he has been lost in the sands of the desert, until he has spent a few years in the House of the Dead. Van Wyck Brooks inspirational funny book Never forget that it is we New Yorkers and New Englanders who have the monopoly of whatever oxygen there is in the American continent. Van Wyck Brooks monopoly never-forget oxygen
