Quotes by : Lionel Trilling

At the behest of the criterion of authenticity, much that was once thought to make up the very fabric....

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

consistent affection for his characters is what sets Tolstoy apart. Flaubert is equally “objective,”....

In the most secret heart of every intellectual ... there lies hidden ... the hope of power, the desire....

What marks the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have.

The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.

We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being....

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in....

Orwell clung with a kind of wry, grim pride to the old ways of the last class that had ruled the old....

The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity....