Lionel Trilling Quotes

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

artists

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

artists

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

misunderstanding

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

equality liberal

Literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty.

literature

The poet, it is true, is an effect of environment, but we must remember that he is no less a cause.  He may be used as the barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.

poets