has been a great influence in my life.
“I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.”
–“The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.” —Literature and Dogma, preface
His main passion has been mine in my teaching and learning since age 20. Why bother with the shallow, the coarse, the stupid, the fads, and the conventional lowest common denominator? ‘Tis greatness, great minds and sensibilities, and true heroism that are truly worth idealizing, pursuing, studying, and emulating in daily life, work, and art. The rest tends toward transitoriness, limitedness, and mere dross.