"Without charm there can be no fine literature, as there can be no perfect flower without fragrance."

Arthur Symons Literature See all quotes by Arthur Symons →

React to this quote

More by Arthur Symons

“All art is a form of artifice.For in art there can be no prejudices.”

“Criticism is properly the rod of divination: a hazel switch for the discovery of buried treasure, not a birch twig for the castigation of offenders.”

“The mystic too full of God to speak intelligibly to the world.”

“My soul is like this cloudy, flaming opal ring.”

“What we ask of him is, that he should find out for us more than we can find out for ourselves.... He must have the passion of a lover.”

“He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue of style, perfect explicitness is not a necessary virtue.”

Resonant Thoughts

"There must be no premature renunciation, physical or emotional. The heart, like the body, needs exercise. Naturally there can be no deliberate stirring up of emotion, but why, merely for reasons of ag…"

— André Maurois

opinion journalism1885–1967

#love

"In those days it was thought that only through the principle of nationality could freedom be established, and here, again, the changes which had happened had made this ideal seem less needed than it w…"

— James Bryce

Sports1838–1922

#freedom