George Henry Lewes Quotes

92 Sourced Quotes

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

George Henry Lewes
Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

George Henry Lewes
All bad Literature rests upon imperfect insight, or upon imitation, which may be defined as seeing at second-hand.

George Henry Lewes
As all Art depends on Vision, so the different kinds of Art depend on the different ways in which minds look at things.

George Henry Lewes
Science is the systematic classification of experience.

George Henry Lewes
Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art.

George Henry Lewes
It is unhappily true that much insincere Literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.

George Henry Lewes
It is not true that a man can believe or disbelieve what he will. But it is certain that an active desire to find any proposition true will unconsciously tend to that result by dismissing importunate suggestions which run counter to the belief, and welcoming those which favor it. The psychological law, that we only see what interests us, and only assimilate what is adapted to our condition, causes the mind to select its evidence.

George Henry Lewes
In urging all writers to be steadfast in reliance on the ultimate victory of excellence, we should no less strenuously urge upon them to beware of the intemperate arrogance which attributes failure to a degraded condition of the public mind. The instinct which leads the world to worship success is not dangerous. The book which succeeds accomplishes its aim. The book which fails may have many excellencies, but they must have been misdirected.

George Henry Lewes
Come with me, and lovingly study Nature, as she breathes, palpitates, and works under myriad forms of Life forms unseen, unsuspected, or unheeded by the mass of ordinary men.

George Henry Lewes
If I advance new views in Philosophy or Theology, I cannot expect to have many adherents among minds altogether unprepared for such views; yet it is certain that even those who most fiercely oppose me will recognize the power of my voice if it is not a mere echo; and the very novelty will challenge attention, and at last gain adherents if my views have any real insight.

George Henry Lewes
Over the meeting of the lovers I draw a veil. The burst of rapture with which they clasped each other in a wild embrace -- the many inquiries -- the fond regrets and thrilling hopes -- it is out of my power to convey. Let me, therefore, leave them to their happiness.

George Henry Lewes
The spontaneous tendency to invoke a Final Cause in explanation of every difficulty is characteristic of metaphysical philosophy. It arises from a general tendency towards the impersonation of abstractions which is visible throughout History.

George Henry Lewes
It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.

George Henry Lewes
The art of writing is not, as many seem to imagine, the art of bringing fine phrases into rhythmical order, but the art of placing before the reader intelligible symbols of the thoughts and feelings in the writer's mind.

George Henry Lewes
Roger Bacon expressed a feeling which afterwards moved many minds, when he said that if he had the power he would burn all the works of the Stagirite, since the study of them was not simply loss of time, but multiplication of ignorance. Yet in spite of this outbreak every page is studded with citations from Aristotle, of whom he everywhere speaks in the highest admiration.

George Henry Lewes
The separation of Science from Knowledge was effected step by step as the Subjective Method was replaced by the Objective Method: i.e., when in each inquiry the phenomena of external nature ceased to be interpreted on premisses suggested by the analogies of human nature.

George Henry Lewes
The object of Literature is to instruct, to animate, or to amuse.

George Henry Lewes
No man was ever eloquent by trying to be eloquent, but only by being so.

George Henry Lewes
Few researches can be conducted in anyone line of inquiry without sooner or later abutting on some metaphysical problem, were it only that of Force, Matter, or Cause; and since Science will not, and Metaphysic cannot solve it, the result is a patchwork of demonstration and speculation very pitiable to contemplate.

George Henry Lewes
To write much, and to write rapidly, are empty boasts. The world desires to know what you have done, and not how you did it.

George Henry Lewes
It will often be a question when a man is or is not wise in advancing unpalatable opinions, or in preaching heresies; but it can never be a question that a man should be silent if unprepared to speak the truth as he conceives it.

George Henry Lewes
In the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the earth we tread on, Life is every where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with Life ; every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle.

George Henry Lewes
When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent.

George Henry Lewes
Our native susceptibilities and acquired tastes determine which of the many qualities in an object shall most impress us, and be most clearly recalled. One man remembers the combustible properties of a substance, which to another is memorable for its polarising property; to one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezveus for lovers.

George Henry Lewes
Whatever lies beyond the limits of experience, and claims another origin than that of induction and deduction from established data, is illegitimate.

George Henry Lewes
The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect. But although the mind instinctlvely rejects all needless complexity, we shall greatly err if we fail to recognise the fact, that what the mind recoils from is not the complexity, but the needlessness.

George Henry Lewes
In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.

George Henry Lewes
Obedient to the primary impulse of adequate expression, the style of a complex subject should be complex; of a technical subject, technical; of an abstract subject, abstract; of a familiar subject, familiar; of a pictorial subject, picturesque.

George Henry Lewes
It is always understood as an expression of condemnation when anything in Literature or Art is said to be done for effect; and yet to produce an effect is the aim and end of both.

George Henry Lewes