Lionel Trilling – 7 Quotes

7 Quotes by Lionel Trilling

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.

– Lionel Trilling

We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us.

– Lionel Trilling

We are all ill: but even a universal sickness implies an idea of health.

– Lionel Trilling

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

– Lionel Trilling

There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.

– Lionel Trilling

Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.

– Lionel Trilling

The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.

– Lionel Trilling