Frasi di Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Data di nascita: 7. Febbraio 1885
Data di morte: 10. Gennaio 1951
Altri nomi:Lyuis Garri Sinkler,ਸਿਨਕਲੇਅਰ ਲੁਈਸ
Harry Sinclair Lewis è stato un romanziere e drammaturgo statunitense. Fu il primo statunitense a vincere il Premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1930, "per la sua arte descrittiva vigorosa e grafica e per la sua abilità nel creare, con arguzia e spirito, nuove tipologie di personaggi". Le sue opere sono conosciute per le loro visioni sagaci e critiche della società statunitense e dei valori capitalistici. Il suo stile è, allo stesso tempo, comico, satirico e tuttavia comprensivo.
Frasi Sinclair Lewis
„Io non sapevo che la Bibbia fosse poesia! Pensavo che non fosse altro che religione!“
— Sinclair Lewis
da Opera d'arte, traduzione di Mario Borsa, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1954, p. 24
„I hate your city. It has standardized all the beauty out of life. It is one big railroad station—with all the people taking tickets for the best cemeteries.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: I hate your city. It has standardized all the beauty out of life. It is one big railroad station—with all the people taking tickets for the best cemeteries. ~ Ch. 7
„Fortune has dealt with me rather too well. I have known little struggle, not much poverty, many generosities. Now and then I have, for my books or myself, been somewhat warmly denounced — there was one good pastor in California who upon reading my Elmer Gantry desired to lead a mob and lynch me, while another holy man in the state of Maine wondered if there was no respectable and righteous way of putting me in jail.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: Fortune has dealt with me rather too well. I have known little struggle, not much poverty, many generosities. Now and then I have, for my books or myself, been somewhat warmly denounced — there was one good pastor in California who upon reading my Elmer Gantry desired to lead a mob and lynch me, while another holy man in the state of Maine wondered if there was no respectable and righteous way of putting me in jail. And, much harder to endure than any raging condemnation, a certain number of old acquaintances among journalists, what in the galloping American slang we call the "I Knew Him When Club", have scribbled that since they know me personally, therefore I must be a rather low sort of fellow and certainly no writer. But if I have now and then received such cheering brickbats, still I, who have heaved a good many bricks myself, would be fatuous not to expect a fair number in return.
Nobel Lecture (12 December 1930)
„It did seem sounder to build houses which he could build than to teach children a gospel which he did not altogether understand in a Sioux language which he could not quite speak.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: It did seem sounder to build houses which he could build than to teach children a gospel which he did not altogether understand in a Sioux language which he could not quite speak. He reflected, 'If I could put over some kind of equality for Mark Shadrock and Black Wolf, that would be enough heavenly progress for me.' ~ Ch. 53
„There was much conversation, most of which sounded like the rest of it.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: There was much conversation, most of which sounded like the rest of it. ~ Ch. 14
„I have faith in Faith, I have reverence for all true Reverence.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: I have faith in Faith, I have reverence for all true Reverence. ~ Ch. 59
„We should adopt Jesus boldly, and send missionaries to explain him to the whites, except that no Indian except one very old and sick and never much good in warfare would be pompous enough to tell alien peoples what he thinks they should believe.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: We should adopt Jesus boldly, and send missionaries to explain him to the whites, except that no Indian except one very old and sick and never much good in warfare would be pompous enough to tell alien peoples what he thinks they should believe. ~ Ch. 41
„I don't believe in fear of divine vengeance, and I do believe in justice and equality....“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: I don't believe in fear of divine vengeance, and I do believe in justice and equality.... ~ Ch. 57
„It came to him merely to run away was folly, because he could never run away from himself.“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: It came to him merely to run away was folly, because he could never run away from himself. ~ Ch. 25
„What is Love—the divine Love of which the—the great singer teaches us in Proverbs? It is the rainbow that comes after the dark cloud. It is the morning star and it is also the evening star, those being, as you all so well know, the brightest stars we know. It shines upon the cradle of the little one and when life has, alas, departed, to come no more, you find it still around the quiet tomb. What is it inspires all great men—be they preachers or patriots or great business men? What is it, my brethren, but Love? Ah, it fills the world with melody, with such sacred melodies as we have just indulged in together, for what is music? What, my friends, is music? Ah, what indeed is music but the voice of Love!"“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: His text was from Proverbs: "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
He seized the sides of the pulpit with his powerful hands, glared at the congregation, decided to look benevolent after all, and exploded: "In the hustle and bustle of daily life I wonder how many of us stop to think that in all that is highest and best we are ruled not by even our most up-and-coming efforts but by Love? What is Love—the divine Love of which the—the great singer teaches us in Proverbs? It is the rainbow that comes after the dark cloud. It is the morning star and it is also the evening star, those being, as you all so well know, the brightest stars we know. It shines upon the cradle of the little one and when life has, alas, departed, to come no more, you find it still around the quiet tomb. What is it inspires all great men—be they preachers or patriots or great business men? What is it, my brethren, but Love? Ah, it fills the world with melody, with such sacred melodies as we have just indulged in together, for what is music? What, my friends, is music? Ah, what indeed is music but the voice of Love!"
Elmer Gantry, paraphrasing the eloquence of the "atheist" Robert G. Ingersoll in his sermon.
„Is it possible that nobody has ever known—that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?“
— Sinclair Lewis
Context: He fretted that he did not know anything. He sighed, 'I have sought the Kingdom of God a little, the Squire has sought it terribly, but we haven't even a map, and after what I saw this afternoon, I know the Sioux are as barbarous as we are. Is it possible that nobody has ever known—that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years? ~ Ch. 33
