Noun
Learning; acquaintance with letters or books.
The collective body of literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also, the whole body of literary productions or writings upon a given subject, or in reference to a particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a given country or period; as, the literature of Biblical criticism; the literature of chemistry.
The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge; belles-lettres.
The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary work.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIn literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others. André Maurois
Journalism is literature in a hurry. Matthew Arnold
The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose. Margaret Atwood
Literature is a good staff but a bad crutch. English Proverb
Teach your descendants the two proper roads - literature and farming. Chinese Proverb
There are only two ways to reach the truth -- with literature and agriculture. Chinese Proverb