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George Steiner Quotes

We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning Picture Quote #1

Books are in no hurry. An act of creation is in no hurry; it reads us, it privileges us infinitely. The notion that it is the occasion for our cleverness fills me with baffled bitterness and anger Picture Quote #1

Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich. No canvases came off museum walls as the butchers strolled reverently past, guide-books in hand Picture Quote #1

The new sound-sphere is global. It ripples at great speed across languages, ideologies, frontiers and races. The economics of this musical Esperanto is staggering. Rock and pop breed concentric worlds of fashion, setting and life-style. Popular music has brought with it sociologies of private and public manner, of group solidarity. The politics of Eden come loud Picture Quote #1

The Jew has his anchorage not in place but in time, in his highly developed sense of history as personal context. Six thousand years of self-awareness are a homeland Picture Quote #1

If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal Picture Quote #1

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The Socratic demonstration of the ultimate unity of tragic and comic drama is forever lost. But the proof is in the art of Chekhov Picture Quote #1

A sentence always means more. Even a single word, within the weave of incommensurable connotation, can, and usually does Picture Quote #1

We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning Picture Quote #1

To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate Picture Quote #1

Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent Picture Quote #1

Life proceeds amid an incessant network of signals Picture Quote #1

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The whispers of shared ecstasy are choral Picture Quote #1

Every language is a world. Without translation, we would inhabit parishes bordering on silence Picture Quote #1

For many human beings, religion has been the music which they believe in Picture Quote #1

Anything can be said and, in consequence, written about anything Picture Quote #1

The age of the book is almost gone Picture Quote #1

The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion Picture Quote #1

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Nothing in a language is less translatable than its modes of understatement Picture Quote #1

A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen Picture Quote #1

There is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness Picture Quote #1

Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity, do not easily resume life Picture Quote #1

Every one of my opponents, every one of my critics, will tell you that I am a generalist spread far too thin in an age when this is not done anymore, when responsible knowledge is specialized knowledge Picture Quote #1

Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence Picture Quote #1

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Increasingly unable to create for itself a relevant body of myth, the modern imagination will ransack the treasure house of the classic Picture Quote #1

Tragedy speaks not of secular dilemmas which may be resolved by rational innovation, but of the unalterable bias toward inhumanity and destruction in the drift of the world Picture Quote #1

When the modern scholar cites from a classic text, the quotation seems to burn a hole in his own drab page Picture Quote #1

Literary criticism has about it neither rigour nor proof. Where it is honest, it is passionate, private experience seeking to persuade Picture Quote #1

The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius Picture Quote #1

There are three intellectual pursuits, and, so far as I am aware, only three, in which human beings have performed major feats before the age of puberty. They are music, mathematics, and chess Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning. (George Steiner Quotes) Books are in no hurry. An act of creation is in no hurry; it reads us, it privileges us infinitely. The notion that it is the occasion for our cleverness fills me with baffled bitterness and anger (George Steiner Quotes) Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich. No canvases came off museum walls as the butchers strolled reverently past, guide-books in hand (George Steiner Quotes) The new sound-sphere is global. It ripples at great speed across languages, ideologies, frontiers and races. The economics of this musical Esperanto is staggering. Rock and pop breed concentric worlds of fashion, setting and life-style. Popular music has brought with it sociologies of private and public manner, of group solidarity. The politics of Eden come loud (George Steiner Quotes) The Jew has his anchorage not in place but in time, in his highly developed sense of history as personal context. Six thousand years of self-awareness are a homeland (George Steiner Quotes) If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal (George Steiner Quotes) The Socratic demonstration of the ultimate unity of tragic and comic drama is forever lost. But the proof is in the art of Chekhov (George Steiner Quotes) A sentence always means more. Even a single word, within the weave of incommensurable connotation, can, and usually does (George Steiner Quotes) We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning (George Steiner Quotes) To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate (George Steiner Quotes) Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent (George Steiner Quotes) Life proceeds amid an incessant network of signals (George Steiner Quotes) The whispers of shared ecstasy are choral (George Steiner Quotes) Every language is a world. Without translation, we would inhabit parishes bordering on silence (George Steiner Quotes) For many human beings, religion has been the music which they believe in (George Steiner Quotes) Anything can be said and, in consequence, written about anything (George Steiner Quotes) The age of the book is almost gone (George Steiner Quotes) The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion (George Steiner Quotes) Nothing in a language is less translatable than its modes of understatement (George Steiner Quotes) A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen (George Steiner Quotes) There is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness (George Steiner Quotes) Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity, do not easily resume life (George Steiner Quotes) Every one of my opponents, every one of my critics, will tell you that I am a generalist spread far too thin in an age when this is not done anymore, when responsible knowledge is specialized knowledge (George Steiner Quotes) Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence (George Steiner Quotes) Increasingly unable to create for itself a relevant body of myth, the modern imagination will ransack the treasure house of the classic (George Steiner Quotes) Tragedy speaks not of secular dilemmas which may be resolved by rational innovation, but of the unalterable bias toward inhumanity and destruction in the drift of the world (George Steiner Quotes) When the modern scholar cites from a classic text, the quotation seems to burn a hole in his own drab page (George Steiner Quotes) Literary criticism has about it neither rigour nor proof. Where it is honest, it is passionate, private experience seeking to persuade (George Steiner Quotes) The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius (George Steiner Quotes) There are three intellectual pursuits, and, so far as I am aware, only three, in which human beings have performed major feats before the age of puberty. They are music, mathematics, and chess (George Steiner Quotes)

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