Lionel Trilling

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#artists #imitate #immature #mature #steal

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#helpless #make #misunderstanding #oneself #others

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#authoritarian #believe #cynical #form #heart

It is now life and not art that requires the willing suspension of disbelief. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#disbelief #life #now #requires #suspension

The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#also #barometer #forget #let us #may

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#conscious #everywhere #jew #like #points

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#condition #consent #contemplation #cruel #cruelty

Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#blaming #culture #honors #intellect #our

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#generate #humor #impossible #irony #little

The immature artist imitates. Mature artists steal. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#artists #imitates #immature #mature #steal