A peoples literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can. – Edith Hamilton
None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry. – Edith Hamilton
Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed. – Edith Hamilton
There are few efforts more conducive to humility than that of the translator trying to communicate an incommunicable beauty. Yet, unless we do try, something unique and never surpassed will cease to exist except in the libraries of a few inquisitive book lovers. – Edith Hamilton
It is true that the aristocracies seem to have abused their monopoly of legal knowledge and at all events their exclusive possession of the law was a formidable impediment to the success of those popular movements which began to be universal in the western world. – Henry James Sumner Maine
Its a wonderful profession, and it opens lots of doors, and I think its quite right that people can accuse actors and actresses of being dilettante, but you learn on every job, whatever it is, the process moves you on in some way, and yeah, I want to expand my knowledge of our existence, I suppose. – Miranda Richardson