So he produces unlimited wealth for himself; not merely can he eat and drink and sleep all he wants, but he builds a whole elaborate set of laws and moral customs and religious codes about this power, he invents manners and customs and Literatures and arts, expressive of his superiority to nature and to his fellow men, and of his ability to enslave and exploit them.
"The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society"
Upton Sinclair
As the earliest Literatures of most nations have not been preserved to us, we can examine various Literatures in their earliest stages only; we shall in almost every case find that these are written in rhythmical prose or possess the beginning of a pattern hardly differing from rhythmic prose.
"The Literature of Ecstasy"
Albert Mordell
The characteristic might be elucidated by comparison with the other great European Literatures.
"English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century"
Leslie Stephen