Epic Poems Quotations

Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.

A rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does; a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith. All falsehood is a mask; and however well made the mask may be, with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

It is one thing to write as poet and another to write as a historian: the poet can recount or sing about things not as they were, but as they should have been, and the historian must write about them not as they should have been, but as they were, without adding or subtracting anything from the truth.

We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us.