Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Stracheywas a British writer and critic...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth1 March 1880
bare business facts lay
It is not the historian's business to be complimentary; it is his business to lay bare the facts of the case, as he understands them . . . dispassionately, impartially and without ulterior motives.
brilliant english-critic france francis government original strong vital
In France particularly, under the strong and brilliant government of Francis I, there was an outburst of original and vital writing.
highest historian ignorance perfection requisite
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.
writing men creation-of-man
Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing.
independent past important
Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.
promise tigers
A writer’s promise is like a tiger’s smile
latin simplicity unity
The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint.
good-life writing difficult
It is perhaps as difficult to write a good life as to live one.
englishmen
Englishmen have always loved Moliere.
biographies discretion
Discretion is not the better part of biography.
peculiar literature triumph
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.
writing past style
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.
dark atmosphere age
There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.
latin vocabulary exception
With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin.