Van Wyck Brooks

Those of our writers who have possessed a vivid personal talent have been paralyzed by a want of social background. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#genre #imagination #relevance #imagination

Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#everywhere #feed #find #magnanimous #more

Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#clothed #found #genius #gray #more

If men were basically evil, who would bother to improve the world instead of giving it up as a bad job at the outset? ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#basically #bother #evil #giving #improve

It is not that the French are not profound, but they all express themselves so well that we are led to take their geese for swans. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#french #geese #led #profound #swans

People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#bent #breeding #caliber #good #good breeding

The American mind, unlike the English, is not formed by books, but, as Carl Sandburg once said to me... by newspapers and the Bible. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#bible #books #carl #english #formed

The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#creative #impulses #man #possessive #war

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#courage #his #man #platitudes #successful

Nothing is sadder than having worldly standards without worldly means. ↗

— Van Wyck Brooks

#means #nothing #sadder #standards #than