A man can make himself put down what comes, even if it seems nauseating nonsense; tomorrow some of it may not seem wholly nonsense at all.
About F. L. Lucas
Frank Laurence Lucas was an English classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and intelligence officer at Bletchley Park during World War II.
He is now best remembered for his scathing 1923 review of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and for his book Stylewas for over fifty years a standard introduction.
More quotes from F. L. Lucas
At Munich we sold the Czechs for a few months grace, but the disgrace will last as long as history.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
Most style is not honest enough.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
The two World Wars came in part, like much modern literature and art, because men, whose nature is to tire of everything in turn… tired of common sense and civilization.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
Poetry had far better imply things than preach them directly… in the open pulpit her voice grows hoarse and fails.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
The only hope I can see for the future depends on a wiser and braver use of the reason, not a panic flight from it.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
And how is clarity to be achieved? Mainly by taking trouble and by writing to serve people rather than to impress them.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
A man can make himself put down what comes, even if it seems nauseating nonsense; tomorrow some of it may not seem wholly nonsense at all.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
Apart from a few simple principles, the sound and rhythm of English prose seem to me matters where both writers and readers should trust not so much to rules as to their ears.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)
The most emphatic place in a clause or sentence is the end. This is the climax; and, during the momentary pause that follows, that last word continues, as it were, to reverberate in the reader’s mind. It has, in fact, the last word.
British writer and classical scholar (1894-1967)