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Life comes before literature, as the material always comes before the work. The hills are full of marble before the world blooms with statues.
Phillips Brooks
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Life and experience are essential foundations that precede artistic expression and creativity.

In this quote, Phillips Brooks emphasizes the idea that genuine life experiences and the natural world provide the raw materials for artistic creation. Just as marble exists in the hills prior to becoming a crafted statue, the richness of life serves as the basis for literature and art, suggesting that creativity emerges from observation and understanding of the world around us.

Themes

LifeArtCreationExperienceLiterature

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of storytelling, I might say, 'As Phillips Brooks reminds us, 'Life comes before literature.'

More from Phillips Brooks

The earth has grown old with its burden of care, But at Christmas it always is young.
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We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.
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The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.
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To believe in the God over us and around us and not in the God within us - that would be a powerless and fruitless faith.
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To say, 'well done' to any bit of good work is to take hold of the powers which have made the effort and strengthen them beyond our knowledge.
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Think of life as a voyage. The truest liver of the truest life is like a voyager who, as he sails, is not indifferent to all the beauty of the sea around him.
Phillips BrooksRead

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