There is no surer or more illuminating way of reading a man's character, and perhaps a little of his past history, than by observing the contexts in which he prefers to use certain words. — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
When any significant change takes place in the moral standards of a community, it is immediately reflected in a general shifting of the meanings… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
And what is the very essence of poetry if it is not this 'metaphorical language'-this marking of the before unapprehended relations of things? — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
When the velocity of progress increases beyond a certain point, it becomes indistinguishable from crisis. — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
“...library terror - that feeling of being hopelessly overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of available books...” — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
“When we recall the great influence which Spenser's poetry has exerted on English poets who have lived and written since his day, we can… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
...the poet, while creating anew, is likely to be in a sense restoring something old. — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
“Imagination is not, as some poets have thought, simply synonymous with good. It may be either good or evil. As long as art remained… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
There is no surer or more illuminating way of reading a man's character, and perhaps a little of his past history, than by observing… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
The obvious is the hardest thing of all to point out to anyone who has genuinely lost sight of it. — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
“All conscious nature has experiences of pleasure and pain. Man alone can deliberately will the repetition of an experience. And repetition, experienced as such,… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
In the common words we use every day, souls of past races, the thoughts and feelings of individual men stand around us, not dead,… — Owen Barfield Copy Share Image
