We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.
Harold BloomRead
Reading the very best writers—let us say Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy—is not going to make us better citizens. Art is perfectly useless, according to the sublime Oscar Wilde, who was right about everything. He also told us that all bad poetry is sincere. Had I the power to do so, I would command that these words be engraved above every gate at every university, so that each student might ponder the splendor of the insight.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reading great literature may not improve civic duties, but it enriches the human experience.
Harold Bloom reflects on the value of reading classic literature by authors such as Homer and Shakespeare, suggesting that while such readings may not directly contribute to being better citizens, they are invaluable for personal and artistic enrichment. He quotes Oscar Wilde to emphasize that art, which may seem useless in a practical sense, nonetheless holds profound beauty and significance that influences our understanding of life. Bloom advocates for the recognition of this insight, proposing that it should be a guiding principle in education.
Themes
LiteratureArtEducationCitizenshipOscar Wilde
In practice
Example use cases
During a commencement speech to emphasize the importance of the arts in education.
More from Harold Bloom
All quotes →I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.
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Reading well is one of the greatest pleasures that solitude can afford you.
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Socrates, in Plato, formulates ideas of order: the Iliad, like Shakespeare, knows that a violent disorder is a great order.
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I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
Harold BloomRead
Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.
Harold BloomRead
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