QuoteProject
There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
Alexis De Tocqueville
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Literature, especially Shakespeare's, has been appreciated by people in all walks of life, including pioneers in remote places.

This quote by Alexis De Tocqueville highlights the universal value of literature, indicating that even those living in isolated conditions, such as pioneers in log cabins, find solace and inspiration in the works of great authors like Shakespeare. It emphasizes how literature transcends social and physical barriers, connecting individuals through shared human experiences and emotions.

Themes

LiteratureShakespearePioneersReadingCulture

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of literature in shaping society, one might quote De Tocqueville.

More from Alexis De Tocqueville

The aspect of American society is animated, because men and things are always changing; but it is monotonous, because all the changes are alike.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
Alexis De TocquevilleRead

Similar quotes

A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.
Ezra PoundRead
The book, if you would see anything in it, requires to be read in the clear, brown, twilight atmosphere in which it was written; if opened in the sunshine, it is apt to look exceedingly like a volume of blank pages.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
Kate DicamilloRead
Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.
Helen KellerRead
For a lot of readers these days, a book is something you have to agree or disagree with. But you can't agree with a novel. For my generation, it was assumed that a book is a dramatic thing, that the eye of the book is not telling you what to think.
Howard JacobsonRead
What makes a book great, a so-called classic, it its quality of always being modern, of its author, though he be long dead, continuing to speak to each new generation.
Lawrence Clark PowellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.