Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Stracheywas a British writer and critic...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth1 March 1880
Lytton Strachey quotes about
promise tigers
A writer’s promise is like a tiger’s smile
bare business facts lay
It is not the historian's business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them . . . dispassionately, impartially and without ulterior motives.
highest historian ignorance perfection requisite
Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian -- ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.
peculiar literature triumph
In pure literature, the writers of the eighteenth century achieved, indeed, many triumphs; but their great, their peculiar, triumphs were in the domain of thought.
biographies discretion
Discretion is not the better part of biography.
writing past style
Modern as the style of Pascal's writing is, his thought is deeply impregnated with the spirit of the Middle Ages. He belonged, almost equally, to the future and to the past.
age unattainable too-much
The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.
dark atmosphere age
There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.
flower maturity government
When Louis XIV assumed the reins of government France suddenly and wonderfully came to her maturity; it was as if the whole nation had burst into splendid flower.
civilization ruins language
When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved.
latin vocabulary exception
With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin.
men tests capacity
Perhaps the best test of a man's intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.
literature common french-literature
The amateur is very rare in French literature - as rare as he is common in our own.
giving age facts
Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work.