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"There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man's general destiny."
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"It [discovering Finnish] was like discovering a wine-cellar filled with bottles of amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me."

"She picked up the stout and took a sip. It slid down her throat like silk."

"Not everyone can experience what other people can... That's why movies come out... films and books... and short stories and novels..."

"Our experiences are the building blocks of the future hewn out of the granite of the present."

"Life wants you to touch, taste and see the grandeur of the world's unfathomable variety."

"There is a huge difference between learning about truth and experiencing truth. Touch the source."

"It is not how long the music last but how much we enjoy."

"When the reality looks extraordinarily unreal, you must know that you are in an extraordinarily beautiful place!"

"All day long, one continues to suffer sweet or bitter fruits. This life has been attained for the purpose of experiencing!"
Explore more quotes by Lascelles Abercrombie


"The epic poet has behind him a tradition of matter and a tradition of style; and that is what every other poet has behind him too; only, for the epic poet, tradition is rather narrower, rather more strictly compelling."


"But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring process, the series a recurring series - though not in exact repetition."


"With several different kinds of poetry to choose from, a man would decide that he would like best to be an epic poet, and he would set out, in conscious determination, on an epic poem."


"That is to say, epic poetry has been invented many times and independently; but, as the needs which prompted the invention have been broadly similar, so the invention itself has been."


"By the general process of epic poetry, I mean the way this form of art has constantly responded to the profound needs of the society in which it was made."


"It seems difficult, sometimes, to believe that there was a time when sentiments now become habitual, sentiments that imply not only the original imperative of conduct, but the original metaphysic of living, were by no means altogether habitual."


"The world knows of a vast stock of epic material scattered up and down the nations; sometimes its artistic value is as extraordinary as its archaeological interest, but not always."


"Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours."


"The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals; but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else."
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