"We are human, and nothing is more interesting to us than humanity. The appeal of literature is that it is so thoroughly a human thing — by, for and about human beings. If you lose that focus, you obviate the source of the power and permanence of literature."

M. H. Abrams Literature See all quotes by M. H. Abrams →

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More by M. H. Abrams

“When something startlingly new comes up, young people, especially, seize it. You can't complain about that.”

“John Updike is always fun. And one of my former students, Tom Pynchon. I like to read Archie Ammons, my great friend. And Harold Bloom, another former student.”

“The theories of the major philosophers of the 18th century secular enlightenment were biblical and theological in spite of themselves.”

“The survival of artistic modes in which we recognize ourselves, identify ourselves and place ourselves will survive as long as humanity survives.”

“If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem.”

“I think most of the things I published have been published out of desperation, not because they were perfected.”

Resonant Thoughts

"How do you go about loving your enemies? I think the first thing is this: In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I'm sure that seems strange to you, that I start out tell…"

— Martin Luther King

Social Activism1929–1968

#Human Nature

"Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality; an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in…"

— John Adams

Politics1947

#mind

"Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness, as you confess those invaded by the Stamp Act to be. We claim them from a higher source—from the King of kings, and Lord of all t…"

— John Dickinson

Politics1732–1808

#justice

"Which European politician of the first half of the twentieth century could be relied on to read the philosophical and literary works of his co-nationals and send their authors notes of criticism and c…"

— R.J.B. Bosworth

1943

#writing