65 Wise George Henry Lewes Quotes (PHILOSOPHY)

Top 14 Most Famous George Henry Lewes Quotes (BEST)

“In the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the earth we tread on, life is every where. Nature lives: every pore is bursting with life; every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle.”
George Henry Lewes

The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache. — The only way to get through **life** is to **laugh** your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.

The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must keep your body in prime condition if you want your mind to be sharp.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. — What is called **genius** is the **abundance** of life and **health**.

Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism. — Originality is **independence**, not rebellion; it is **sincerity**, not antagonism.

The only cure for grief is action. — The only cure for **grief** is **action**.

Character is built out of circumstances. From exactly the same materials, one man builds palaces, while another builds hovels.

If you feel yourself to be above the mass, speak so as to raise the mass to the height of your argument.

The air is crowded with birds - beautiful, tender, intelligent birds - to whom life is a song. — The air is crowded with birds – beautiful, tender, intelligent birds – to whom life is a song.

Endeavour to be faithful, and if there is any beauty in your thought, your style will be beautiful; if there is any real emotion to express, the expression will be moving. — Endeavour to be **faithful**, and if there is any **beauty** in your thought, your style will be beautiful; if there is any real emotion to express, the expression will be moving.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

In all sincere speech there is power, not necessarily great power, but as much as the speaker is capable of.

Individual experiences being limited and individual spontaneity feeble, we are strengthened and enriched by assimilating the experience of others.

We are not what we seem, nor are we what we think we are.

3 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Science

“Science as we now understand the word is of later birth. If its germinal origin may be traced to the early period when Observation, Induction, and Deduction were first employed, its birth must be referred to that comparatively recent period when the mind, rejecting the primitive tendency to seek in supernatural agencies for an explanation of all external phenomena, endeavored, by a systematic investigation of the phenomena themselves to discover their invariable order and connection.”
George Henry Lewes

Science is the systematic classification of experience. — Science is the systematic classification of **experience**.

Science is not addressed to poets. — Science is not addressed to **poets**.

6 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Philosophy and Art

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions. — The true function of **philosophy** is to **educate** us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

Philosophy and Art both render the invisible visible by imagination.

Language, after all, is only the use of symbols, and Art also can only affect us through symbols.

Insight is the first condition of Art. — **Insight** is the first condition of Art.

As all Art depends on Vision, so the different kinds of Art depend on the different ways in which minds look at things.

It is not enough that a man has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure. — It is not enough that a man has clearness of **vision**, and reliance on **sincerity**, he must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.

6 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Writers and Poets

“The discoverer and the poet are inventors; and they are so because their mental vision detects the unapparent, unsuspected facts, almost as vividly as ocular vision rests on the apparent and familiar.”
George Henry Lewes

“The art of writing is not, as many seem to imagine, the art of bringing fine phrases into rhythmical order, but the art of placing before the reader intelligible symbols of the thoughts and feelings in the writer’s mind.”
George Henry Lewes

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

The magic of the pen lies in the concentration of your thoughts upon one object. — The magic of the pen lies in the **concentration** of your thoughts upon one object.

7 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Literature

“Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress. It deepens our natural sensibilities, and strengthens by exercise our intellectual capacities. It stores up the accumulated experience of the race, connecting past and present into a conscious unity; and with this store it feeds successive generations, to be fed in turn by them.”
George Henry Lewes

All bad literature rests upon imperfect insight, or upon imitation, which may be defined as seeing at second-hand.

It is unhappily true that much insincere literature and Art, executed solely with a view to effect, does succeed by deceiving the public.

All good literature rests primarily on insight.

The object of literature is to instruct, to animate, or to amuse.

Personal experience is the basis of all real literature.

Literature delivers tidings of the world within and the world without.

3 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Geniuses

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed. — Many a **genius** has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

The real people of genius were resolute workers not idle dreamers. — The real people of genius were resolute workers not idle **dreamers**.

Genius is rarely able to give any account of its own processes.

3 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Imagination

“Every one who has seriously investigated a novel question, who has really interrogated nature with a view to a distinct answer, will bear me out in saying that it requires intense and sustained effort of imagination.”
George Henry Lewes

No man ever made a great discovery without the exercise of the imagination.

The intensity of vision in the artist and of vividness in his creations are the sole tests of his imaginative power. — The intensity of **vision** in the artist and of vividness in his creations are the sole tests of his imaginative power.

2 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Books

Books minister to our knowledge, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their truth, their uprightness, and their art. — **Books** minister to our **knowledge**, to our guidance, and to our delight, by their **truth**, their uprightness, and their art.

Books have become our dearest companions, yielding exquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims. — Books have become our dearest **companions**, yielding exquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims.

3 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Sincerity

Sincerity is not only effective and honorable, it is also much less difficult than is commonly supposed.

Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.

4 George Henry Lewes Quotes on Love

We are not judicious in love; we do not select those whom we ought to love, but those whom we cannot help loving. — We are not judicious in **love**; we do not select those whom we ought to love, but those whom we cannot help loving.

The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected. — The delusions of **self-love** cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving **success** may be corrected.

To one man a stream is so much water-power, to another a rendezvous for lovers.

14 George Henry Lewes Quotes to Ponder

“Bad acting, like bad writing, has a remarkable uniformity, whether seen on the French, German, or English stages; it all seems modeled after two or three types, and those the least like types of good acting. The fault generally lies less in the bad imitation of a good model, than in the successful imitation of a bad model.”
George Henry Lewes

Speak for yourself and from yourself, or be silent.

The public can only be really moved by what is genuine.

In complex trains of thought signs are indispensable.

“Whatever you believe to be true and false, that proclaim to be true and false; whatever you think admirable and beautiful, that should be your model, even if all your friends and all the critics storm at you as a crotchet-monger and an eccentric.”
George Henry Lewes

Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families. — Murder, like **talent**, seems occasionally to run in **families**.

No man was ever eloquent by trying to be eloquent, but only by being so..

A cell is regarded as the true biological atom.

“The great desire of this age is for a doctrine which may serve to condense our knowledge, guide our researches, and shape our lives, so that conduct may really be the consequence of belief.”
George Henry Lewes