Lytton Strachey

For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian──ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection that unattainable by the highest art. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#ignorance #art

The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#age #history #know #much #never

But Racine's extraordinary powers as a writer become still more obvious when we consider that besides being a great poet he is also a great psychologist. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#become #being #besides #consider #extraordinary

Discretion is not the better part of biography. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#biography #discretion #part

During this earlier period of his activity Voltaire seems to have been trying - half unconsciously, perhaps - to discover and to express the fundamental quality of his genius. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#been #discover #during #earlier #express

Englishmen have always loved Moliere. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#englishmen #loved

How far the existence of the Academy has influenced French literature, either for good or for evil, is an extremely dubious question. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#dubious #either #evil #existence #extremely

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. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#clarifies #first #highest #historian #ignorance

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. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#almost #belonged #deeply #equally #future

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. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#century #domain #eighteenth #eighteenth century #great