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Hardship is vanishing, but so is style, and the two are more closely connected than the present generation supposes.

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A book is a mirror; if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to peer out.

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The Waves is an extraordinary achievement ... It is trembling on the edge. A little less - and it would lose its poetry. A little more - and it would ...more

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How can the mind take hold of such a country? Generations of invaders have tried, but they remain in exile. The important towns they build are only re...more

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Books have to be read (worse luck, for it takes a long time); it is the only way of discovering what they contain.

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Human beings have their great chance in the novel.

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What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.