Not a few men combine a thorough grounding in the principles of an art with no taste in it whatever. The principles are not forgotten; on the contrary, they are applied to excess.
May 222023
Seeming
Religion, art, taste, and other delusions.
May 102023
Nothing is, ever was, or ever will be so bad it’s good.
Apr 142023
Art, like science, may be regarded by the practitioner as a collective body of work to which he hopes to make a small contribution.
Apr 052023
Domestic sentiment is impossible to portray effectively in art, because it is universal, deeply felt, and always the same.
Mar 282023
It is as misdirected to love or admire science, in the large, as poetry. One must ask after not poetry but poems, and not science but experiments.
Mar 212023
Eccentric diets and exercise — vegan, paleo, ultra-marathon, yoga — advertise themselves as cures for the body; in fact they are cures for the soul, often at the body’s expense.
Mar 142023
We preach for our politics, and for our religion, but preachers for art are known as “critics” and justly regarded as an alien species.
Mar 092023
Things are not always what they seem, but that’s the way to bet.
Mar 022023
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not because it is subjective, but because it must be noticed.
Feb 212023
Movie reviews are for people who might watch the movie; book reviews are for people who won’t read the book.