Formal Ground

Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or ground:

    I will not let him stir
    Till I have used the approvèd means I have,
    With wholesome syrups, drugs, and holy prayers,
    To make of him a formal man again.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    Any historian of the literature of the modern age will take virtually for granted the adversary intention, the actually subversive intention, that characterizes modern writing—he will perceive its clear purpose of detaching the reader from the habits of thought and feeling that the larger culture imposes, of giving him a ground and a vantage point from which to judge and condemn, and perhaps revise, the culture that produces him.
    Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)