#om

English dramatic literature is, of course, dominated by Shakespeare; and it is almost inevitable that an English reader should measure the value of other poetic drama by the standards which Shakespeare has already implanted in his mind. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#already #course #dominated #drama #dramatic

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

The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#aristocracy #background #chivalry #civilization #exalted

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

There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#ages #atmosphere #dark #later #middle

Though, with the ascendancy of Louis, the political power of the nobles finally came to an end, France remained, in the whole complexion of her social life, completely aristocratic. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#ascendancy #came #completely #complexion #end

When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#came #civilization #evolved #existence #french

With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin. ↗

— Lytton Strachey

#every #exceptions #few #french #latin

Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone... the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way. ↗

— J. Michael Straczynski

#behind #else #find #follow #follows

The point of mythology or myth is to point to the horizon and to point back to ourselves: This is who we are; this is where we came from; and this is where we're going. And a lot of Western society over the last hundred years - the last 50 years really - has lost that. We have become rather aimless and wandering. ↗

— J. Michael Straczynski

#back #become #came #going #horizon