“There is no such thing as happiness. Life bends joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a way that no one may isolate them. No one should want to. Perfect joy, or perfect pain, with no contrasting element to define them, would mean a monotony of consciousness, would mean death” WayWantShouldMayMeanPainJoyPerfectConsciousnessElementsUglinessLife HappinessMonotonyJoy And Pain Author:Jean Toomer
“Art is a course in personal development that has no reliable diploma and no known end. The pursuit of art instructs in beauty as well as ugliness, fantasy as well as common sense. Art levels souls and baffles brains. Art softens pain because it is pain. Art gives joy because it is joy.” GivingWellsArtSoulEndsPainJoyCoursesLevelsCommonBrainKnownFantasyDevelopmentArt IsProfessionPersonal DevelopmentPursuitCommon SenseUglinessDiploma Author:Robert Genn
“I used to come from the village with all that dirt and coarse ugliness like a pain within me, and the simpering pictures in the drawing-room seemed to me like a wicked attempt to find delight in what is false, while we don't mind how hard the truth is for the neighbors outside our walls. I think we have no right to come forward and urge wider changes for good, until we have tried to alter the evils which lie under our own hands.” ThinkingMindHardHandsPainUsedLyingEvilRoomsWallTruth IsDelightNeighborDrawingWickedUrgesVillageDirtUglinessCoarse Book:Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Source: Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)