Renaudot Prize Quotes & Sayings

The spiritual kinship between Lincoln and Whitman was founded upon their Americanism, their essential Westernism. Whitman had grown up without much formal education; Lincoln had scarcely any education. One had become the notable poet of the day; one the orator of the Gettsyburg Address. It was inevitable that Whitman as a poet should turn with a feeling of kinship to Lincoln, and even without any association or contact feel that Lincoln was his. — Edgar Lee Masters

Is it not excessively ridiculous to seek the good opinion of those whom you would never wish to be like? — Saint John Chrysostom

As he chooses, he is. — Robert McKee

Education must bring the practice as nearly as possible to the theory. As the children now are, so will the sovereigns soon be. — Horace Mann

For mile after mile the same melodic phrase rose up in my memory. I simply couldn't get free of it. Each time it had a new fascination for me. Initially imprecise in outline, it seemed to become more and more intricately woven, as if to conceal from the listener how eventually it would end. This weaving and re-weaving became so complicated that one wondered how it could possibly be unravelled; and then suddenly one note would resolve the whole problem, and the solution would seem yet more audacious than the procedures which had preceded, called for, and made possible its arrival; when it was heard, all that had gone before took on a new meaning, and the quest, which had seemed arbitrary, was seen to have prepared the way for this undreamed-of solution. — Claude Levi-Strauss

Cold is hot, if you love it; hot is cold, if you hate it! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Kierkegaard was a Christian, though he hated the Danish Church and couldn't accept the way complacent Christians around him behaved. For him, religion was a heart-wrenching option, not a cosy excuse for a song in church. — Nigel Warburton

Don't get starry-eyed about somebody you can't have, especially if it blinds you to somebody who's really important. — Rick Riordan