Remarks by Robert Williams Buchanan

“Sport, in so far as it embraces the hunting and killing of wild animals, is invariably more or less demoralising—is, in fact, a relapse from Civilisation to Barbarism.”

Condemning blood sport as a retreat from humane civilisation · Preface, The Truth about the Game Laws, 1898

“True Sport must combine a maximum of exertion and even danger with a minimum of destruction.”

Setting personal challenge against needless harm to animals · Preface, The Truth about the Game Laws, 1898

“Wherever there is insincerity in a book there can be no morality.”

Making sincerity fundamental to his conception of ethical writing · Essay, Immorality in Authorship

“Morality in literature is, I think, far more intimately connected with the principle of sincerity of sight than any writer has yet had the courage to point out.”

Connecting literary morality primarily with honesty of perception · Essay, Immorality in Authorship

“The poet is one who sees life newly, assimilates it emotionally, and contrives to utter it musically.”

Defining poetry as a union of fresh perception, emotion and musical expression · Essay, The Poet, or Seer

“The further the poet finds it necessary to recede from his own time, the less trustworthy is his imagination, the more constrained his sympathy.”

Arguing that poets should remain engaged with the life of their own age · Essay, On My Own Tentatives

“Actual life, independent of accessories, is the true material for poetic art.”

Stating his commitment to making contemporary lived experience the substance of poetry · Essay, On My Own Tentatives

“I do not quite see why I should pray, or to whom I should pray; and yet pray I must.”

Capturing the tension between religious uncertainty and spiritual instinct · Essay, David Gray and Other Essays

“Human suffering is inscrutable to me—my own suffering is intolerable; yet I thank God for life.”

Holding gratitude for life alongside an inability to explain suffering · Essay, David Gray and Other Essays

“It was good for ‘distinguished people’ to be reminded occasionally of how very small consequence they really were, in the mighty life of the World!”

A humorous reminder that fame does not confer ultimate importance · Autobiographical essay, My First Book

“I merely lacked gullibility, and saw, at the first glance, the whole unmistakable humbug and insincerity of the Literary Life.”

Recalling his early distrust of literary pretension and careerism · Autobiographical essay, My First Book

“I think still that, as a rule, the profession of letters narrows the sympathy and warps the intelligence.”

A sceptical reflection on the professional literary world · Autobiographical essay, My First Book

“What a miserable world would this be, were there no spiritual interpretation to its darkest problems!”

Affirming the human need to seek meaning beyond visible circumstances · Essay, Society’s Looking-glass, 1862

“Originality, in the eyes of the modern Minerva, is a rather offensive form of vagabondism; but to be mediocre is to be highly respectable.”

Satirising society’s preference for conformity over originality · Essay, Society’s Looking-glass, 1862

“A careful eye to the elaboration of trifles is absolutely essential to perfection in a work of Art. The mispainting of a few leaves may mar the effect of a whole tree.”

Emphasising how small details contribute to the integrity of a work · Essay, Society’s Looking-glass, 1862

“Realism, properly so called, is truth, and truth is always beautiful.”

Linking genuine realism with artistic truth rather than mere literal detail · Essay, Society’s Looking-glass, 1862

“Sooner or later all literature finds its own level, whatever criticism may say or do in the matter.”

Expressing faith that lasting literary judgement outlives contemporary criticism · Essay, The Fleshly School of Poetry, 1871

Rejecting public approval as a reliable measure of artistic worth · Essay, The Muses in England, 1892

“Self-sacrifice is not a formula, nor is chivalry, and when all is said & done, there is such a thing as poetic justice.”

Defending moral intuitions that cannot be reduced to abstract systems · Letter to George Bernard Shaw, 1891

“Mere dogmas seldom explain human character.”

Warning against reducing complex people to fixed theories · Letter to George Bernard Shaw, 1891

“Don Quixote does more than fight Windmills—he radiates Love & Humour, & so saves the world by his very self-failure.”

Finding moral value in generous idealism despite apparent failure · Letter to George Bernard Shaw, 1891

“Good & true enthusiasts must always succeed, even when they must fail; for they are the salt of the earth, & keep it from putrescence.”

Valuing committed idealism even when its immediate aims fail · Letter to George Bernard Shaw, 1891

“In private & in public, I hold by one who held by me when I was down; and I can tell you, that leads me not seldom into warfare.”

Describing loyalty as an obligation that sometimes demands conflict · Letter to William Hepworth Dixon, 1865

“A brave front will best display the spirit in which I am determined to meet all foes.”

Expressing determination to face opposition openly · Letter to William Hepworth Dixon, 1863

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