It is not sufficient for poets to be superficial humanists: but they must be exquisite artists and curious universal scholars.
Gabriel Harvey
Teacher and friend of Spenser
c. 1570s, written in the margins of his Chaucer,
whom he considered an exemplar of this principle
Cited on p. xvii of the introduction to Spenser’s Poetical Works
* * * * * * *
The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of Nature.
Baruch Spinoza
Quoted by Will and Ariel Durant in
The Story of Philosophy, p. 183
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