Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.
Terry EagletonIt is in Rousseau's writing above all that history begins to turn from upper-class honour to middle-class humanitarianism. Pity, sympathy and compassion lie at the centre of his moral vision. Values associated with the feminine begin to infiltrate social existence as a whole, rather than being confined to the domestic sphere.
Terry EagletonMost students of literature can pick apart a metaphor or spot an ethnic stereotype, but not many of them can say things like: 'The poem's sardonic tone is curiously at odds with its plodding syntax.
Terry EagletonYou can tell that the capitalist system is in trouble when people start talking about capitalism.
Terry Eagleton