It is in books, poems, paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge.

It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.

What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.

In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.

Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.

We might define art as anything which pushes our thoughts in important yet neglected directions.

We require such 'sensuous' arts, Hegel suggested, because many important truths will impress themselves upon our consciousness only if they have been moulded from sensory, emotive material.

The great works of art have about them the quality of a reminder.

Tânjim după opere de artă care să ne compenseze slăbiciunile și să ne ajute să găsim calea cea mai viabilă. Considerăm frumoase operele de artă care ne compensează virtuțile deficitare, respingându-le ca urâte pe cele care ne induc anumite stări sau motive de a ne simți fie amenințați, fie copleșiți din start. Arta deține promisiunea integrității noastre interioare.