Theme
On aesthetics, art, and the pursuit of the beautiful — from Wilde's aphorisms to Keats' heirs.
“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.”
— Diaries (1917)
A surprising note of creative optimism from Kafka. Desire becomes a generative force — what we long for enough, we bring into being.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
— Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
Spoken by Lord Darlington in Act III. One of Wilde's most quoted lines — an acknowledgment of shared wretchedness alongside the refusal to surrender aspiration.
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
— The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
Lord Henry's advice to Dorian in Chapter 2. The line encapsulates the novel's central theme: the seductive danger of unchecked hedonism.
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
— The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
From the novel's opening chapter. Basil Hallward reveals the autobiographical nature of all art — the creator cannot help but expose themselves.
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
— Remark to US customs, as reported by newspapers (1882)
Reportedly said at New York customs on his 1882 American lecture tour. Whether apocryphal or not, the line became inseparable from Wilde's public persona.
“Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”
— Mrs Dalloway (1925)
The novel's famous opening line. In a single sentence Woolf establishes character, class, agency, and the ordinary beauty of a June morning in London.
“The soul is healed by being with children.”
— The Idiot (1869)
Prince Myshkin's observation. In a world of calculated cruelty, Dostoyevsky finds redemption in innocence — children represent a pre-fallen state of being.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
— The Raven (1845)
From the poem that made Poe famous overnight. The narrator stands at the threshold of the unknown — fear and desire perfectly balanced.
“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”
— The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838)
Poe's aesthetic manifesto in miniature: language must carry the shock of the real. Mere description fails; the reader must feel the thing described.
“The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”
— The Philosophy of Composition (1846)
From Poe's essay on writing "The Raven." A notorious statement that reveals both his aesthetic principles and the gender politics of Romantic literature.
“I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”
— Wuthering Heights (1847)
Catherine describes dreams that permanently transform consciousness. Brontë captures the way certain experiences — dreams, loves, losses — don't just happen to us but change what we are.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
— In Search of Lost Time (The Captive) (1923)
Proust's argument that perception is more important than geography. Travel changes nothing if you bring the same eyes; transformation happens through altered vision.
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
— Pleasures and Days (1896)
From Proust's early collection. A gentler, more optimistic Proust — before the monumental introspection of the Search. Happiness as cultivation.
“The only true paradise is a paradise we have lost.”
— In Search of Lost Time (Time Regained) (1927)
The definitive Proustian statement on nostalgia. Happiness is only recognized in retrospect — the present is always too close to be seen clearly.
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
— Emma (1815)
From Austen's most psychologically complex novel. Against the social values of wit, beauty, and wealth, she elevates simple emotional generosity.
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”
— Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Spoken by the insincere Miss Bingley. The irony is that she says this to impress Darcy while not reading at all — Austen skewering performative intellectualism.
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
— Dubliners ("The Dead") (1914)
The closing lines of "The Dead," often called the greatest short story in English. Snow as equalizer — covering everything, erasing distinctions between living and dead.
“I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
— The Great Gatsby (1925)
Daisy on her newborn daughter. Not cynicism but exhausted realism — Fitzgerald gives Daisy a moment of devastating self-awareness about what the world does to women who see too clearly.
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
— Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (attributed) (1865)
Often attributed to the Cheshire Cat, though the exact phrasing is disputed. The sentiment — that fancy is our defense against a hostile world — runs through all of Carroll's work.
“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
— Moby-Dick (1851)
Ishmael's confession in the opening chapter. Melville equates restlessness with being alive — the urge toward the unknown is not a flaw but a defining trait.