Famous quotes containing the words abstract, art, critics, war and/or era:
“The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s “mature” critics often are.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
“The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you’ll find him,
His father’s sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing the airy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)