Please help me out with this sentence?

Question

"The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves..."
"The meaning of things doesn't lie in the things themselves..."
Why the former one is correct?

Answer 1

Grammatically, you could argue that both are correct. It's more a matter of revision. Let's take the second sentence. If you write it out the long way, you have:

The meaning of things does not lie in the things themselves...

"Does lie" is a little redundant. It would be like saying, "My mother does bake pies in the summer." It would still make sense but most people would rather say, "My mother bakes pies in the summer."

Whenever you have "does" in front of a verb, you can usually simply drop it and add an "s" to the verb.

Answer 2

because you are negating the object, not the verb.

The meaning still lies, just not in things themselves. It's a nuance to get the most meaning from the least number of words, hence poetry.

But both are grammatically correct.

Answer 3

This is a quote from Antoine De Saint Exupery. Therefore the first sentence is correct. It's because it's from a poem and uses poetic form.
'The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them'.

Answer 4

Both are grammatically correct. but the formality lies with the first sentence

Answer 5

I wouldn't say the first one is more correct, it's just more 'formal' English. The first example certainly has a nicer sound to it, but as far as I can tell there is nothing grammatically incorrect about the second expression.

Answer 6

Sounds like a famous quote. Those sayings are always a little more formal than the way we normally talk.

It's just more formal speech. That is why the first one is correct.

Answer 7

Because it is the correct thing to say it.