Sir Edmund Gosse Quotes

A collection of quotes by Sir Edmund Gosse.

Sir Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) was a prominent British writer, poet, and literary critic. He is best known for his contributions to English literature and his role in popularizing the genre of autobiography. Gosse's most widely read work, "Father and Son" (1907), is a poignant memoir that explores his complex relationship with his father, a prominent naturalist. As a literary critic, he played a crucial role in promoting the works of numerous authors, including Thomas Hardy and Henrik Ibsen. Gosse's eloquent prose and insightful analysis continue to influence literature and literary criticism.

War is the great scavenger of thought. It is the sovereign disinfectant, and its red stream of blood is the Condy's Fluid that cleans out the stagnant pools and clotted channels of the intellect. We have awakened from an opium-dream of comfort, of ease, of that miserable poltroonery of the sheltered life. Our wish for indulgence of every sort, our laxity of manners, our wretched sensitiveness to personal inconvenience, these are suddenly lifted before us in their true guise as the specters of national decay; and we have risen from the lethargy of our dilettantism to lay them, before it is too late, by the flashing of the unsheathed sword.

Sir Edmund Gosse

War