Top 25 Quotes by George Steiner

I find so much writing colourless, small in its means, unwilling to take stylistic risks. Often it goes wrong; I am not the one to judge. Sometimes, I hope, it goes right.

The journalistic vision sharpens to the point of maximum impact every event, every individual and social configuration; but the honing is uniform.

I learned early on that 'rabbi' means teacher, not priest.

I have students who are now in chairs in five continents. They invite me to their inaugurals. A tremendous reward.

My father loved poetry and music. But deep in himself he thought teaching the finest thing a person could do.

Given my age, I am pretty near the end, probably, of my career as a writer, a scholar, a teacher. And I wanted to speak of things I will not be able to do.

The age of the book is almost gone.

To many men... the miasma of peace seems more suffocating than the bracing air of war.

Books are in no hurry. An act of creation is in no hurry; it reads us, it privileges us infinitely. The notion that it is the occasion for our cleverness fills me with baffled bitterness and anger.

I'm sorry, I'm absolutely convinced that there is at the moment no realistic prospect for very much hope in human affairs.