Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Walter Pater

Quote by Walter Pater

“The essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality—no language they have spoken, nor oracle beside which they have hushed their voices, no dream which has once been entertained by actual human minds, nothing about which they have ever been passionate, or expended time and zeal.”

Quote by Walter Pater

Book:The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry
Create image

Work

The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Walter Pater
Walter Pater

Walter Pater was a British essayist, critic, and poet, known for his influential literary criticism and contributions to the Aesthetic Movement. Born on August 4, 1839, and died on July 30, 1894, Pater's work had a significant impact on the development of modern literary theory and the appreciation of art and literature. more

You May Also Like

“For the essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and women can wholly lose its vitality—no language they have spoken, nor oracle beside which they have hushed their voices, no dream which has once been entertained by actual human minds, nothing about which they have ever been passionate, or expended time and zeal.”

ArtCreationHumanism
Book:The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (Large Print Edition): "The Philosophy of Aesthetic Beauty and the Evolution of Creative Expression in History"
Create image

“...but it was not until Sebastian idly turning the page of Clive Bell's Art, read: '“Does anyone feel the same kind of emotion for a butterfly or a flower that he feels for a cathedral or a picture?” Yes. I do,' that my eyes were opened.”

LoveArtUnderstandingFlowersBrideshead RevisitedEvelyn Waugh
Book:Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
Create image

“The most important of these things is that art challenges orthodoxy. To reject or vilify art because it does that is to fail to understand its nature. Art sets the artist’s passionate personal vision against the received ideas of its time. Art knows that received ideas are the enemies of art, as Flaubert told us in Bouvard and Pécuchet. Clichés are received ideas and so are ideologies, both those which depend on the sanction of invisible sky gods and those which do not. Without art, our ability to think, to see freshly, and to renew our world would wither and die.Art is not a luxury. It stands at the essence of our humanity, and it asks for no special protection except the right to exist.It accepts argument, criticism, even rejection. It does not accept violence.And in the end, it outlasts those who oppress it. The poet Ovid was exiled by Augustus Caesar, but the poetry of Ovid has outlasted the Roman Empire. The poet Mandelstam’s life was ruined by Joseph Stalin, but his poetry has outlasted the Soviet Union. The poet Lorca was murdered by the thugs of General Franco, but his art has outlasted the fascism of the Falange.”

Art
Book:Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Create image

“I feel that the cartoon should involve something happening that could not possibly happen, but which has a kind of truth to it. There should be a give-and-take between the truth and the implausibility. If those two things are going on at the exact same time, and they’re both equal in weight, then the brain has a conflict that it has to resolve, and it can only resolve it through laughter.”

ArtHumorFunnyCreative ProcessCartoonsCartoonists
Author:Joe Dator in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner
Create image