No More Learning

Some resemblance the creative work of the critic will have to the work
that has stirred him to creation, but it will be such resemblance as
exists, not between nature and the mirror that the painter of landscape
or figure may be supposed to hold up to her, but between nature and the
work of the decorative artist. Just as on the flowerless carpets of
Persia tulip and rose blossom indeed, and are lovely to look on, though
they are not reproduced in visible shape or line; just as the pearl and
purple of the sea shell is echoed in the church of St Mark at Venice;
just as the vaulted ceiling of the wondrous chapel at Ravenna is made
gorgeous by the gold and green and sapphire of the peacock's tail,
though the birds of Juno fly not across it; so the critic reproduces the
work that he criticises in a mode that is never imitative, and part of
whose charm may really consist in the rejection of resemblance, and
shows us in this way not merely the meaning but also the mystery of
beauty, and by transforming each art into literature solves once for all
the problem of art's unity.

Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new,
complex, and vital.


Nothing is more painful to me than to come across virtue in a person in
whom I have never suspected its existence. It is like finding a needle
in a bundle of hay. It pricks you. If we have virtue we should warn
people of it.

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material
his impression of beautiful things.

Hopper is one of nature's gentlemen--the worst type of gentleman I
know.

If one intends to be good one must take it up as a profession. It is
quite the most engrossing one in the world.

I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. It is so loud that one can
talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says.

All art is at once surface and symbol.

Childhood is one long career of innocent eavesdropping, of hearing what
one ought not to hear.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.

The only things worth saying are those that we forget, just as the only
things worth doing are those that the world is surprised at.

Maturity is one long career of saying what one ought not to say. That is
the art of conversation.

Virtue is generally merely a form of deficiency, just as vice is an
assertion of intellect.

People teach in order to conceal their ignorance, as people smile in
order to conceal their tears.

To be unnatural is often to be great. To be natural is generally to be
stupid.

To lie finely is an art, to tell the truth is to act according to
nature.

People who talk sense are like people who break stones in the road: they
cover one with dust and splinters.

Jesus said to man: You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be
yourself. Don't imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or
possessing external things. Your perfection is inside of you. If only
you could realise that you would not want to be rich.