--- title: "12 Works Literature Quotes by 11 authors" description: "Browse 12 Works Literature quotes by 11 authors. Discover the best Works Literature sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a65/anonymous-1_always_in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest_333653.jpg" --- > [In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest-works-in-literature-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a65/anonymous-1_always_in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest_333653.jpg) > [In science, read by preference the newest works. In literature, read the oldest. The classics are always modern.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-lowell/in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest-works-in-literature-read-the/) [Amy Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-lowell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/550/amy-lowell-7892_books_in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest_3223287.png) > [In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature the oldest.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-bulwer-lytton-1st-baron-lytton/in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest-works-in-literature-the-2/) [Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-bulwer-lytton-1st-baron-lytton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2d8/edward-bulwer-lytton-1st-baron_book_in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest_3147603.jpg) > [The greatest works of literature seem to embody both "art" and "morality".](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joyce-carol-oates/the-greatest-works-of-literature-seem-to-embody-both-art-and-morality/) [Joyce Carol Oates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joyce-carol-oates/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/903/joyce-carol-oates-344_art_the-greatest-works-of-literature-seem-to_3234078.png) > [All great works of literature either dissolve a genre or invent one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/all-great-works-of-literature-either-dissolve-a-genre-or-invent-one/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d65/anonymous-1_books_all-great-works-of-literature-either-dis_1411392.jpg) > [There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the whole of the culture rather…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-m-coetzee-2/there-are-works-of-literature-whose-influence-is-strong-but-indirect/) [J. M. Coetzee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-m-coetzee-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/j-m-coetzee-2-5391_books_there-are-works-of-literature-whose-infl_2151503.jpg) > [As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of literature and getting them out into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-hawthorne-deming/as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-individual-expression-entirely/) [Alison Hawthorne Deming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alison-hawthorne-deming/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e18/alison-hawthorne-deming-11586_books_as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-indivi_1883869.png) > [The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary reputation of Matthew or Mark,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederic-g-kenyon/the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works-of-literature-people-were/) [Frederic G. Kenyon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederic-g-kenyon/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/frederic-g-kenyon-32439_books_the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works_1336370.jpg) > [ “These two sections \[of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise\], plus some of the author's notes, are all we have -- this in itself… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ir-ne-n-mirovsky/these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s-suite-francaise-plus-some-of/) [Irène Némirovsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ir-ne-n-mirovsky/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a54/ir-ne-n-mirovsky-6760_books_these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s_1502945.jpg) > [I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-chabon/i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature-ghettoized-whereas-others/) [Michael Chabon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-chabon/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/michael-chabon-627_book_i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature_2637145.png) > [The point about sales is relevant because it suggests there are cultures out there that are supporting and consuming, on a vast…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katie-kitamura/the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-because-it-suggests-there-are/) [Katie Kitamura](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katie-kitamura/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/katie-kitamura-13105_books_the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-becaus_142902.jpg) > [“Marx was troubled by the question of why ancient Greek art retained an ‘eternal charm’, even though the social conditions which produced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-eagleton/marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why-ancient-greek-art-retained/) [Terry Eagleton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-eagleton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/785/terry-eagleton-1660_ancient-greek_marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why_2033322.png) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/works-literature/#itemlist", "name": "Works Literature Quotes", "numberOfItems": 12, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. 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Wordsworth is the case that comes to mind.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "J. M. Coetzee" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-m-coetzee-2/there-are-works-of-literature-whose-influence-is-strong-but-indirect/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/j-m-coetzee-2-5391_books_there-are-works-of-literature-whose-infl_2151503.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/j-m-coetzee-2-5391_books_there-are-works-of-literature-whose-infl_2151503.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/j-m-coetzee-2-5391_books_there-are-works-of-literature-whose-infl_2151503.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There are works of literature whose influence is strong but indirect because it is mediated through the…” — J. M. Coetzee", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of literature and getting them out into the world.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alison Hawthorne Deming" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-hawthorne-deming/as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-individual-expression-entirely/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e18/alison-hawthorne-deming-11586_books_as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-indivi_1883869.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e18/alison-hawthorne-deming-11586_books_as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-indivi_1883869.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e18/alison-hawthorne-deming-11586_books_as-writers-the-world-is-not-about-indivi_1883869.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of…” — Alison Hawthorne Deming", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary reputation of Matthew or Mark, but with the substance of their records of our Lord's life. They did not have to respect their actual words, as they would if they were transcribing the works of Thucydides or Plato.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Frederic G. Kenyon" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederic-g-kenyon/the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works-of-literature-people-were/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/frederic-g-kenyon-32439_books_the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works_1336370.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/frederic-g-kenyon-32439_books_the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works_1336370.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/frederic-g-kenyon-32439_books_the-gospels-were-not-thought-of-as-works_1336370.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The Gospels were not thought of as works of literature. People were not concerned with the literary…” — Frederic G. Kenyon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“These two sections [of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise], plus some of the author's notes, are all we have -- this in itself is a tragedy and waste of war. Had this novel been finished we would be hailing it as one of the supreme works of literature. As it stands, it is like a great cathedral gutted by a bomb. The ruined shell still soars to heaven, a reminder of the human spirit triumphing despite human destructiveness.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Irène Némirovsky" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ir-ne-n-mirovsky/these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s-suite-francaise-plus-some-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a54/ir-ne-n-mirovsky-6760_books_these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s_1502945.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a54/ir-ne-n-mirovsky-6760_books_these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s_1502945.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a54/ir-ne-n-mirovsky-6760_books_these-two-sections-of-irene-nemirovsky-s_1502945.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“These two sections [of Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise], plus some of the author's notes, are all we have…” — Irène Némirovsky", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions, and procedures of the genre we call literary fiction get accorded greater esteem and privilege. I also have a problem with how books are marketed, with certain cover designs and typefaces. They're often stamped with an identity that has nothing to do with their effect on the reader.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Michael Chabon" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-chabon/i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature-ghettoized-whereas-others/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/michael-chabon-627_book_i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature_2637145.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/michael-chabon-627_book_i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature_2637145.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/michael-chabon-627_book_i-hate-to-see-great-works-of-literature_2637145.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I hate to see great works of literature ghettoized, whereas others that conform to the rules, conventions…” — Michael Chabon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The point about sales is relevant because it suggests there are cultures out there that are supporting and consuming, on a vast scale, challenging works of literature. Works of literature that in the United States would sell only a few thousand copies, if they managed to find a publisher at all. The success of these texts in Spain or Italy or wherever contributes to a kind of national conversation that we're perhaps not having here in the U.S.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katie Kitamura" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katie-kitamura/the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-because-it-suggests-there-are/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/katie-kitamura-13105_books_the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-becaus_142902.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/katie-kitamura-13105_books_the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-becaus_142902.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/katie-kitamura-13105_books_the-point-about-sales-is-relevant-becaus_142902.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The point about sales is relevant because it suggests there are cultures out there that are supporting and…” — Katie Kitamura", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Marx was troubled by the question of why ancient Greek art retained an ‘eternal charm’, even though the social conditions which produced it had long passed; but how do we know that it will remain ‘eternally’ charming, since history has not yet ended? Let us imagine that by dint of some deft archaeological research we discovered a great deal more about what ancient Greek tragedy actually meant to its original audiences, recognized that these concerns were utterly remote from our own, and began to read the plays again in the light of this deepened knowledge. One result might be that we stopped enjoying them. We might come to see that we had enjoyed them previously because we were unwittingly reading them in the light of our own preoccupations; once this became less possible, the drama might cease to speak at all significantly to us. The fact that we always interpret literary works to some extent in the light of our own concerns - indeed that in one sense of ‘our own concerns’ we are incapable of doing anything else - might be one reason why certain works of literature seem to retain their value across the centuries. It may be, of course, that we still share many preoccupations with the work itself; but it may also be that people have not actually been valuing the ‘same’ work at all, even though they may think they have. ‘Our’ Homer is not identical with the Homer of the Middle Ages, nor ‘our’ Shakespeare with that of his contemporaries; it is rather that different historical periods have constructed a ‘different’ Homer and Shakespeare for their own purposes, and found in these texts elements to value or devalue, though not necessarily the same ones. All literary works, in other words, are ‘rewritten’, if only unconsciously, by the societies which read them; indeed there is no reading of a work which is not also a ‘re-writing’. No work, and no current evaluation of it, can simply be extended to new groups of people without being changed, perhaps almost unrecognizably, in the process; and this is one reason why what counts as literature is a notably unstable affair.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Terry Eagleton" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-eagleton/marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why-ancient-greek-art-retained/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/785/terry-eagleton-1660_ancient-greek_marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why_2033322.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/785/terry-eagleton-1660_ancient-greek_marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why_2033322.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/785/terry-eagleton-1660_ancient-greek_marx-was-troubled-by-the-question-of-why_2033322.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Marx was troubled by the question of why ancient Greek art retained an ‘eternal charm’, even though the…” — Terry Eagleton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/works-literature/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/works-literature/", "name": "Works Literature Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/works-literature/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a65/anonymous-1_always_in-science-read-by-preference-the-newest_333653.jpg" }, "description": "Browse 12 Works Literature quotes by 11 authors. 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