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Quote by Nikolai Gogol

“It is true that we are never so filled with pity as at the sight of beauty touched by the pestilential breath of depravity. Let ugliness join hands with it, but beauty, beauty is delicate...It mingles in our thoughts only with what is pure and clean.”

Quote by Nikolai Gogol

Book:Nevsky Prospect
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Nevsky Prospect

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Author

Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a prominent 19th-century Russian dramatist and novelist. His works are known for their sharp satire and humor, which have had a profound impact on Russian literature. more

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“The beautiful in nature is a question of the form of the object, and it consists in limitation, whereas the sublime is to be found in an object even devoid of form, so far as it immediately involves, or else by its presence evokes, a representation of limitlessness, yet with a super-added thought of its totality. Accordingly the beautiful seems to be regarded as a presentation of an indeterminate concept of the understanding , the sublime as a presentation of an indeterminate concept of reason, Hence, the delight is in the former case coupled with the representation of quality, but in this case with that of quantity. Moreover, the former delight is very different from the latter in kind. For the beautiful is directly attended with a feeling of the furtherance of life, and thus is compatible with charms and a playful imagination. On the other hand, the feeling of the sublime is a pleasure that only arrises indirectly, being brought about by the feeling of a momentary check of the vital forces followed all at once by discharge all the more powerful, and so it is an emotion that seems to be no play, but a serious matter of the imagination. Hence charms are also incompatible with it; and, since the mind is not simply attracted by the object, but is also alternately repelled thereby, the delight in the sublime does not show how much involve positive pleasure as admiration or respect, i.e. merits the name of a negative pleasure.”

PhilosophyBeautifulBeautySublimeKantSublimityImmanuel Kant
Book:Critique of Judgment
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“Η τελειότητα ενέχει κάτι σαν τυραννία, ίσως και κάτι εξουθενωτικό, αρνείται στο θεατή ένα ρόλο στη δημιουργία της και επιβάλλεται με το δογματισμό απερίφραστης δήλωσης. Μα η αληθινή ομορφιά δεν είναι μετρήσιμη, έχει διακυμάνσεις, είναι ορατή από λίγες μόνο γωνίες, και πάλι όχι με κάθε φωτισμό ούτε κάθε στιγμή. Ερωτοτροπεί επικίνδυνα με την ασχήμια, διακινδυνεύει να εκτεθεί, δε συνάδει βολικά με μαθηματικούς τύπους περί αναλογιών, αντλεί τη γοητεία της από στοιχεία που υπηρετούν εξίσου την ασχήμια. Ίσως είναι αναγκαίο η ομορφιά να ρισκάρει προμελετημένα με λίγη ασχήμια.”

Beauty
Book:On Love
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