Dowden Quotes

#1. The nearest approach to the infallible in literary judgment is represented in the colossal work of the teacher of all these three [Edmund Gosse, Edward Dowden and George Saintsbury], the greatest critic that ever lived - not an Englishman, but a Frenchman, the wonderful Sainte-Beuve.

Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve

#2. Browning's tragedies are tragedies without villains.

Edward Dowden

#3. When a doting person gets down on all fours and plays with the dog's rubber mouse, it only confuses the puppy and gives him a sense of insecurity. He gets the impression that the world is unstable and wonders whether he is supposed to walk on his hind legs and smoke cigars.

Corey Ford

#4. Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as a distinguished success.

Edward Dowden

#5. Here upon the earth evil is such was Shakespeare's declaration in the most emphatic accent. Iago actually exists. There is also in the earth a sacred passion of deliverance a pure redeeming ardor. Cordelia exists.

Edward Dowden

#6. We had to fill in forms which asked us whether we had ever been convicted of any crime. I hesitated about this. The NCO in charge, seeing me hesitate, explained kindly:'You write "No" in that line'.

Auberon Waugh

#7. I remember when cable happened and everyone said broadcast was dead, and then satellite happened and everyone said cable was dead, and then DVDs happened and everyone said everything was over. Nothing was over. I'm very optimistic about the future.

Anne Sweeney

#8. Lady Macduff: Now God help thee, poor monkey! But
how wilt thou do for a father?

Son: If he were dead, you'd weep for him. If you would
not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a
new father.

William Shakespeare

#9. Fear, tenderness - these emotions were so despised that they could be admitted into consciousness only at the cost of redefining what it meant to be a man.

Pat Barker

#10. I was at dinner with Gene Wilder and imitated Ethel Barrymore for everyone.

Dom DeLuise

#11. For a poet to depict a poet in poetry is a hazardous experiment; in regarding one's own trade a sense of humour and a little wholesome cynicism are not amiss.

Edward Dowden