“Literature is the recording of the human spirit in its eternal struggle to express the unutterable.”

Capturing the core purpose of literary expression as a bridge to deep human experience · Critical essay

• Literature
• Spirit
• Struggle

“The artist is always an exile, whether in his own country or in another, because his vision sets him apart from the crowd.”

Exploring the inherent isolation and independence of the creative mind · Essays and commentary

• Art
• Creativity
• Isolation

“James Joyce was a creature of paradoxes, a man who possessed a tremendous amount of intellectual courage but was physically cautious.”

Reflecting on the striking contrast between intellectual boldness and physical caution in human nature · Biography, James Joyce

• Biography
• Character
• Courage

“I will never write another biography of a living man. It is too difficult and thankless a task.”

Reflecting on the challenges of writing an authorised biography under the subject's close supervision · Letter to John Farrar, 14 September 1937

• Biography
• Difficulty
• Writing

“I have no notion of a happy life, but a happy moment.”

Finding happiness in vivid, passing moments rather than in an imagined permanently happy life · Letters, as commonly attributed

• Happiness
• Joy
• Time

“We hardly ever find the worth of books till we lose them; and it is then too late to value them.”

A reminder that the value of books is often recognised only after access to them has been lost. · Essay, On the Scarcity of Books

• Books
• Loss
• Reading

“Fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death.”

A forceful expression of community as essential to human flourishing. · Prose romance, A Dream of John Ball

• Community
• Companionship
• Life

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”

It presents attentive engagement with ordinary experience as a source of happiness. · Essay, Hopes and Fears for Art

• Attention
• Happiness
• Life

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

A concise principle joining practical use with aesthetic pleasure in the home. · Lecture, The Beauty of Life

• Beauty
• Home
• Utility

“A good laugh is sunshine in a house.”

Humour is presented as a source of warmth and renewal in domestic life. · Commonly attributed remark

• Happiness
• Home
• Humour

“The world is a looking-glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.”

Our experience of the world is shaped partly by the character we bring to it. · Novel, Vanity Fair

• Character
• Perception
• Reflection

“There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.”

Writing can reveal thoughts that remain hidden until they are given form. · Essay, Roundabout Papers

• Consciousness
• Discovery
• Writing

“The difficulty with writing a play is not in writing it, but in getting it produced.”

Capturing the practical obstacles that can stand between artistic creation and public recognition · Creative Power

• Creation
• Theatre
• Writing

“The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?”

Defending political participation as essential protection against renewed oppression. · The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

• Democracy
• Freedom
• Justice

“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.”

Framing liberation as the achievement of an undivided and fully recognised self. · The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

• Freedom
• Identity
• Struggle

“One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings.”

Expressing the divided identity produced by racial exclusion. · The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

• Belonging
• Consciousness
• Identity

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”

A concise statement of the racial conflict Du Bois saw as central to modern history. · The Souls of Black Folk, 1903

• History
• Justice
• Race

“A friend is a second self.”

Presenting friendship as a form of profound recognition and shared identity · Prose, A Cypress Grove

• Connection
• Friendship
• Identity

“Home is the nicest word there is.”

A concise expression of home as a source of belonging and emotional comfort · Letter to Lady Hesketh, 1785

• Belonging
• Comfort
• Home

“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”

Arguing that poetry provides essential knowledge and nourishment unavailable elsewhere · Essay, The Wedge

• Knowledge
• Necessity
• Poetry

“Only the rarest kind of best is good enough for the young.”

A conviction that children deserve writing of the highest quality and seriousness. · Essay, On the Art of Writing

• Books
• Children
• Writing

“The art of poetry is the art of making the commonplace uncommon.”

A concise statement of poetry’s power to renew ordinary experience through attention and imagination · Prose writings, commonly attributed

• Beauty
• Perception
• Poetry

“The corn was orient and immortal wheat which never should be reaped nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting.”

Expressing the child’s sense of nature as timeless, newly discovered, and beyond ordinary human ownership · Centuries of Meditations

• Eternity
• Nature
• Wonder

“These are the times that try men's souls.”

Calling for courage and steadfastness during a period of national crisis · The American Crisis, no. 1

• Courage
• Patriotism
• Struggle