Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving Quotes

“The process of a creative argument is a silent and lonely one, requiring investigation and guesses, the following up of clues in that labyrinth of thought till their utility or their falsity has been proved. The most that a striving mind can do at such a time is to keep sight of some main purpose or tendency-some perpetual recognition of its objective. If in addition the thinker has to keep eternally and consciously within his purview a lot of other subjects bearing on his main idea, each with its own attendant distractions and divergences, his argument would to a listener seem but a jumble of undigested facts, deductions, and imaginings. Moreover, it would leave in the mind of the latter a belief that the speaker is without real conviction at all; a mere groper in the dark. If, on the other hand, the man thinking out his problem tries to hear in mind his friend’s understanding-with an eye to his ultimate approval and acceptance of his argument and condescension-he is apt to limit himself to commonplace and acceptable truths.”
― Bram Stoker, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving