Percy Wynham Lewis Quotes

A collection of quotes by Percy Wynham Lewis.

Percy Wynham Lewis (1882-1957) was a British painter, writer, and critic, known for his significant contributions to modernist literature and art. He was born in Amherst, Canada, but later moved to England, where he established himself as a prominent figure in the early 20th-century avant-garde.

In the literary realm, Lewis is best known for his novels. His most famous work, "The Apes of God," published in 1930, offers a scathing satire of the London art scene and its pretensions. Lewis's writing style was characterized by its complexity, experimentation, and a deep disdain for what he perceived as the cultural decline of modern society.

Alongside his literary endeavors, Lewis was an accomplished painter and leader of the Vorticist movement. Vorticism aimed to capture the dynamic energy of the modern world through abstract geometric forms and vibrant colors. Lewis's artwork often featured industrial landscapes and mechanical subjects, reflecting his fascination with modern technology and urban life.

As a critic, Lewis was renowned for his provocative and controversial views. He founded the influential literary journal "BLAST" in 1914, which championed Vorticism and published writings by various avant-garde artists. Lewis's critical writings, such as "The Art of Being Ruled" and "Time and Western Man," challenged the prevailing cultural and intellectual ideologies of his time.

Percy Wynham Lewis's multidimensional artistic and intellectual pursuits firmly established him as a key figure in early 20th-century modernism, leaving a lasting impact on both literature and visual arts.

In the democratic western countries so-called capitalism lea

In the democratic western countries so-called capitalism leads a saturnalia of freedom, like a bastard brother of reform.

Percy Wynham Lewis

A hundred things are done today in the divine name of Youth,

A hundred things are done today in the divine name of Youth, that if they showed their true colors would be seen by rights to belong rather to old age.

Percy Wynham Lewis

When we say science we can either mean any manipulation of t

When we say science we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science, the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.

Percy Wynham Lewis

If you do not regard feminism with an uplifting sense of the

If you do not regard feminism with an uplifting sense of the gloriousness of woman's industrial destiny, or in the way, in short, that it is prescribed, by the rules of the political publicist, that you should, that will be interpreted by your opponents as an attack on woman.

Percy Wynham Lewis

So-called austerity, the stoic injunction, is the path towar

So-called austerity, the stoic injunction, is the path towards universal destruction. It is the old, the fatal, competitive path. Pull in your belt is a slogan closely related to gird up your loins, or the guns-butter metaphor.

Percy Wynham Lewis

All orthodox opinion -- that is, today, revolutionary opinio

All orthodox opinion -- that is, today, revolutionary opinion either of the pure or the impure variety -- is anti-man.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Almost anything that can be praised or advocated has been pu

Almost anything that can be praised or advocated has been put to some disgusting use. There is no principle, however immaculate, that has not had its compromising manipulator.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Revolutionary politics, revolutionary art, and oh, the revol

Revolutionary politics, revolutionary art, and oh, the revolutionary mind, is the dullest thing on earth. When we open a revolutionary review, or read a revolutionary speech, we yawn our heads off. It is true, there is nothing else. Everything is correctly, monotonously, dishearteningly revolutionary. What a stupid word! What a stale fuss!

Percy Wynham Lewis

The puritanical potentialities of science have never been fo

The puritanical potentialities of science have never been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchically organized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of decency. The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Revolution today is taken for granted, and in consequence be

Revolution today is taken for granted, and in consequence becomes rather dull.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Then we are assured by Sartre that owing to the final disapp

Then we are assured by Sartre that owing to the final disappearance of God our liberty is absolute! At this the entire audience waves its hat or claps its hands. But this natural enthusiasm is turned abruptly into something much less buoyant when it is learnt that this liberty weighs us down immediately with tremendous responsibilities. We now have to take all God's worries on our shoulders --now that we are become men like gods. It is at this point that the Anxiety and Despondency begin, ending in utter despair.

Percy Wynham Lewis

The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and

The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable role with the promise of rewards -- material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the garden of Eden.

Percy Wynham Lewis

It is more comfortable for me, in the long run, to be rude t

It is more comfortable for me, in the long run, to be rude than polite.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Men were only made into men with great difficulty even in pr

Men were only made into men with great difficulty even in primitive society: the male is not naturally a man any more than the woman. He has to be propped up into that position with some ingenuity, and is always likely to collapse.

Percy Wynham Lewis

If the world would only build temples to Machinery in the ab

If the world would only build temples to Machinery in the abstract then everything would be perfect. The painter and sculptor would have plenty to do, and could, in complete peace and suitably honored, pursue their trade without further trouble.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Machinery Machines

A sort of war of revenge on the intellect is what, for some

A sort of war of revenge on the intellect is what, for some reason, thrives in the contemporary social atmosphere.

Percy Wynham Lewis

Prostration is our natural position. A worm-like movement fr

Prostration is our natural position. A worm-like movement from a spot of sunlight to a spot of shade, and back, is the type of movement that is natural to men.

Percy Wynham Lewis

I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is

I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is intrinsically a more interesting country, but because no one really belongs there any more than I do. We are all there together in its wholly excellent vacuum.

Percy Wynham Lewis

No American worth his salt should go around looking for a ro

No American worth his salt should go around looking for a root. I advance this in all modesty, as a not unreasonable opinion.

Percy Wynham Lewis

The ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season: they a

The ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season: they are as arbitrary, as much imposed by some superior will which is seldom explicit. They are utilitarian and political, the instruments of smooth-running government.

Percy Wynham Lewis