“For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian──ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection that unattainable by the highest art.” — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same… — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
Perhaps of all the creations of man language is the most astonishing. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
Though, with the ascendancy of Louis, the political power of the nobles finally came to an end, France remained, in the whole complexion of… — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their… — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
English dramatic literature is, of course, dominated by Shakespeare; and it is almost inevitable that an English reader should measure the value of other… — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
How far the existence of the Academy has influenced French literature, either for good or for evil, is an extremely dubious question. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages. — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
Modern as the style of Pascal's writing is, his thought is deeply impregnated with the spirit of the Middle Ages. He belonged, almost equally,… — Lytton Strachey Copy Share Image
