The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.
Author
Lionel Trilling
7 quotations
About Lionel Trilling
Lionel Mordecai Trilling was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. One of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century, he analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, and political implications of literature. He and his wife, Diana Trilling, were members of the New York Intellectuals and contributors to the Partisan Review.
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by Lionel TrillingEvery neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform…
There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.
Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.
We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health.
We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.
Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.