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George Henry Lewes Quotes About Thinking

Browse 7 quotations connecting George Henry Lewes with Thinking, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

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Sources

Where these thinking quotations appear

Sources represented here include The Principles of Success in Literature, The Physical Basis of Mind.

The Principles of Success in Literature1891 · 5 matching quotationsThe Physical Basis of Mind1877 · 2 matching quotations
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Quotations

7 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
Hence more than half their disputes are at bottom verbal.
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“Hence more than half their disputes are at bottom verbal.”

The Physical Basis of Mind · 1877
Meaning & context

Lewes argues that many apparent disagreements persist because people use the same terms with different meanings, making precision of language part of clearer reasoning.

Source details

The Physical Basis of Mind, chapter on consciousness and unconsciousness; Project Gutenberg #60212. Lewes is discussing ambiguity of scientific terms, so the line supports communication and conceptual clarity rather than a claim that all disputes are merely verbal.

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Source identified2
Science, as we often say, is the systematization of Experience under the forms of ideal constructions.
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“Science, as we often say, is the systematization of Experience under the forms of ideal constructions.”

The Physical Basis of Mind · 1877
Meaning & context

Lewes describes science as organized experience shaped into conceptual structures, a historical philosophy-of-science claim about how observation becomes systematic knowledge.

Source details

The Physical Basis of Mind, Problem I, “The Study of Psychology,” in the discussion of modern scientific method; Project Gutenberg #60212. The wording belongs to Lewes’s 1877 framework, not current philosophy-of-science consensus.

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Source identified3
Without clear Vision no skill can avail.
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“Without clear Vision no skill can avail.”

The Principles of Success in Literature · 1891
Meaning & context

Technique cannot fully rescue confused conception: Lewes argues that literary skill depends first on seeing the subject and its relations with enough distinctness.

Source details

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Vision in Art, Project Gutenberg #10420; “Vision” is Lewes’s critical term for distinct mental apprehension.

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Source identified4
All good Literature rests primarily on insight.
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“All good Literature rests primarily on insight.”

The Principles of Success in Literature · 1891
Meaning & context

Lewes makes clear perception the starting condition of literary creation: a writer must see or understand something distinctly before expression can make it vivid.

Source details

The Principles of Success in Literature, Chapter II, “The Principle of Vision,” Project Gutenberg #10420, in the 1891 volume edited by Fred Newton Scott. “All good Literature rests primarily on insight” opens Lewes’s claim that authentic literary expression depends on seeing and feeling for oneself. It is historical literary criticism rather than an experimentally established law of creativity.

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Source identified5
It must be the expression of its author's mind.
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“It must be the expression of its author's mind.”

The Principles of Success in Literature · 1891
Meaning & context

Lewes treats style as inseparable from the writer’s actual thought and temperament rather than as a detachable surface manner copied from someone else.

Source details

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; the sentence follows Lewes’s assertion that good style must be sincere.

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Source identified6
only THROUGH the style can thought reach the reader's mind.
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“only THROUGH the style can thought reach the reader's mind.”

The Principles of Success in Literature · 1891
Meaning & context

Style is treated as the actual route by which thought becomes accessible to readers, not decorative clothing that can be separated from meaning without loss.

Source details

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; capitalization of “THROUGH” follows the represented Gutenberg transcription.

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Source identified7
They ought to be illustrations not authorities, studies not models.
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“They ought to be illustrations not authorities, studies not models.”

The Principles of Success in Literature · 1891
Meaning & context

Great predecessors can teach principles without becoming templates to copy, preserving the learner’s responsibility to develop independent judgment and expression.

Source details

The Principles of Success in Literature, chapter on Style, Project Gutenberg #10420; Lewes is warning writers against imitating Cicero, Titian or other masters.

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