{"quotes":[{"text":"[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a state of intoxication; the minute you get the easy touch of the real craftsman with centuries of civilisation behind him, you get literature.","author":"Dorothy L. Sayers","tags":["civilization","craft","craftsmanship","creative-process","crudeness","culture","literature","selling-out","style","writing"],"id":53017,"author_id":"Dorothy+L.+Sayers"},{"text":"Manlius ... Took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surprising if such a man did know anything of philosophy, and even if it was explained, he would not wish to understand.","author":"Iain Pears","tags":["broad-mindedness","civilization","crudeness","education","knowledge","like-mindedness","materialism","philosophy","plato","power","understanding","vulgarity"],"id":224491,"author_id":"Iain+Pears"},{"text":"Caius was one of those who gloried in his ignorance, called his lack of letters purity, scorned any subtlety of thought or expression. A man for his time, indeed.","author":"Iain Pears","tags":["civilization","coarseness","crudeness","education","ignorance","stupidity"],"id":325832,"author_id":"Iain+Pears"},{"text":"Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them.","author":"Flannery O'Connor","tags":["crudeness","grace","perspicacity","violence","writing"],"id":339880,"author_id":"Flannery+O%27Connor"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":4,"pages":1}}