Literature and Words

When I want to read a novel, I write one.

You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.

With words we govern men.

There is no Frigate like a Book

The word Papa, besides, gives a pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes, and prism, are all very good words for the lips: especially prunes and prism.

When found, make a note of.

There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power. review of the Works of Pope (1847 ed.) in North British Review August 1848, vol. 9

Il n’y a pas de hors-texte.

Philologists, who chase

My task which I am trying to achieve is by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything.

Prose = words in their best order;—poetry = the best words in the best order.

That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.

What is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole,

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.

Journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive.

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly,

What I tell you three times is true.

It’s as large as life, and twice as natural!

It’s my own invention. the White Knight

You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.

He’s an Anglo-Saxon Messenger—and those are Anglo-Saxon attitudes.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that’s all.’