Literary Birthday – 28 November – Leslie Stephen

Nine Quotes

1. The poet should touch our heart by showing his own.
2. The only way in which one human being can properly attempt to influence another is by encouraging him to think for himself, instead of endeavouring to instil ready-made opinions into his head.
3. Genius is a capacity for taking trouble.
4. Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season. All great men of letters have therefore been enthusiastic walkers.
5. No good story is quite true.
6. He who sees only what is before his eyes sees the worst part of every view.
7. The wilderness provides an environment for a child’s inner life to develop because it requires him to be constantly aware of his surroundings.
8. Chance is a name for our ignorance.
9. No poetry lives which reflects only the cheerful emotions. Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought.

Sir Leslie Stephen was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer. He was the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, but was perhaps best known as the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.

Image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leslie_Stephen_c1860.jpg

Telrúnya 15:59, 22 January 2008 (UTC) (upload), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 by Amanda Patterson

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