F.R. Leavis Quotes

#1. A good deal of Paradise Lost strikes one as being almost as mechanical as bricklaying.

F.R. Leavis

#2. In any period it is upon a very small minority that the discerning appreciation of art and literature depends ... They are still a minority, though a larger one, who are capable of endorsing such first-hand judgement by genuine personal response.

F.R. Leavis

#3. Poetry can communicate the actual quality of experience with a subtlety and precision unapproachable by any other means.

F.R. Leavis

#4. The "great tradition" does not brook even the possibility of libidinal gratification between the pages as an end in itself, and FR Leavis's "eat up your broccoli" approach to fiction emphasises this junkfood/wholefood dichotomy.

F.R. Leavis

#5. A man's most vivid emotional and sensuous experience is inevitably bound up with the language that he actually speaks. (New Bearings in English Poetry)

F.R. Leavis

#6. Literature is the supreme means by which you renew your sensuous and emotional life and learn a new awareness.

F.R. Leavis