George Gilfillan (30 January 1813 – 13 August 1878) was a Scottish author and poet. He was one of the spasmodic poets, and an editor and commentator, with memoirs, critical dissertations in many editions of earlier British poetry.

Quotes

Bards of the Bible, 1850

  • The language of imagination is the native language of man. It is the language of his excited intellect, of his aroused passions, of his devotion, of all the higher moods and temperaments of his mind.
    • Introduction

  • The language of poetry is the only speech which has in it the power of permanent impression
    • Introduction

  • Every poet is partly creator and partly the creature of circumstances.
    • Chapter 1

Other Quotes

  • How dearly, at one time, and how cheaply at another, does Genius purchase immortal fame!
    • From dissertation Life and Poems of Thomas Gray
  • Perhaps the life of every thinking man may be divided into three eras —
    the era of admiration
    the era of action
    the era of repose
    • Preface to A Gallery of Literary Portraits, William Tait, Edinburgh 1845
  • Too great this largess from thy hand I know
    Yet ask that some few drops of it may light
    And listened to thy voice, and in it found
    The very Spring and Soul of Poetry
    • From Proem 3 Night: A Poem by George Filfillan, Jackson, Walford & Hodder 1867
  • When the Christian religion reached Great Britain it brought necessarily with it an impulse to intellect as well as to morality..it never fails to produce in all countries to which it comes a resurrection of the nation's virtue and a revival of the nation's political & intellectual energy & genius.Hence we find the very earliets literary names in the early annals of Great Britain are those of Christian missionaries.
    • From Introductory Essay Specimens with Memoirs, 1860 edition


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