February 2008 Archives

“St. Augustine's Confessions”

Feb

13

Wed

I'm reading St. Augustine's Confessions as the non-biblical text in my own personal study and I came across this fantastic quote from Book I, which seems to smack writers squarely in the forehead:

When a man seeking for the reputation of eloquence stands before a human judge while a thronging multitude surrounds him, inveighs against his enemy with the most fierce hatred, he takes most vigilant heed that his tongue slips not into grammatical error, but takes no heed lest through the fury of his spirit he cut off a man from his fellow-men.

— St. Augustine
Confessions

Expect me to quote him more as I get through the entire work.

Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
— Flannery O'Connor

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