Literary Birthday – 15 August – Thomas De Quincey

Thomas De Quincey was born 15 August 1785 and died 8 December 1859.

Quotes

1. Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.
2. Books, we are told, propose to instruct or to amuse. Indeed! A true antithesis to knowledge, in this case, is not pleasure, but power. All that is literature seeks to communicate power; all that is not literature, to communicate knowledge.
3. For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual.
4. It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety.
5. But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come to doubt whether any part at all is proper.
6. There is first the literature of KNOWLEDGE, and secondly, the literature of POWER. The function of the first is — to teach; the function of the second is — to move.

Thomas De Quincey was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic. He was best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that De Quincey began the tradition of addiction literature in the West with this work. Confessions (published in 1821) in London Magazine made him famous. It was reprinted as a book in 1822. As a literary critic De Quincey is best known for his essay ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’ (first printed in the London Magazine, October 1823), a brilliant piece of psychological insight and a classic of Shakespearean criticism.

Source for screenshot: John Watson Gordon, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Watson_Gordon_(1788-1864)_-_Thomas_de_Quincey_(1785%E2%80%931859),_Author_and_Essayist_-_PG_553_-_National_Galleries_of_Scotland.jpg

Source for quotes

 by Amanda Patterson

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