Quotes by Van Wyck Brooks

Those of our writers who have possessed a vivid personal talent have been paralyzed by a want of social background.

Nothing is so soothing to our self-esteem as to find our bad traits in our forebears. It seems to absolve us.

The creative impulses of man are always at war with the possessive impulses.

People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding.

The man who has the courage of his platitudes is always a successful man.

Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.