The dominant theories of elite art and criticism in the 20th century grew out of a militant denial of human nature. One legacy is ugly, baffling, and insulting art. The other is pretentious and unintelligible scholarship. And they’re surprised that people are staying away in droves?
Steven Pinker
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Hard to restrain, unstable is this mind; it flits wherever it lists. Good it is to control the mind.... GAUTAMA BUDDHA Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. I'm always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It i... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Your life today is the result of a series of decisions you made that have caused you to arrive where... CHRIS PRENTISS A strong personal philosophy does more than sustain us through the tragedies of life. It also stains... CHRIS PRENTISS The answers are never "out there." All the answers are "in there," inside you, waiting to be discove... CHRIS PRENTISS Motion pictures are the art form of the 20th century, and one of the reasons is the fact that films ... ROGER CORMAN Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and, in fact, they are surprised by th... TAKASHI MURAKAMI Why do we always begin to think about people when they die? I think we should think about people whi... C. JOYBELL C. The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON I think of the friendships I've strained, the generosity I've exploited, the bridges I've torched. D... ANTHONY ERVIN The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens. CHRIS PRENTISS I would suggest that especially in the differential of images that arise, in the inflections that we... LORILIAI BIERNACKI I would suggest that especially in the differential of images that arise, in the inflections that we... LORILIAI BIERNACKI When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move. SUN TZU Eros (or call it lust if you will), is like a beautiful, magnificent Afghan Hound! A pure white Afgh... C. JOYBELL C. Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century. MARSHALL MCLUHAN God is the most beautiful, and beauty is the expression of God. If you can't appreciate beauty in th... AMIT RAY Life is neither a glorious highlight reel nor a monstrous tragedy. Every day is a good day to live a... KILROY J. OLDSTER And what good is a voice when so few will listen? STACEY JAY Opera is an 18th- and 19th-century art that must find a 20th-century audience. GOERAN GENTELE And these Things, which live by perishing, know you are praising them; transient, they lo... RAINER MARIA RILKE We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL It appeared to Harriet that she was always the one who remembered having seen other people. They nev... ELIZABETH TAYLOR The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS Pastor Smith did not have the religious constitution needed to provide salvation for any of us who�... CHERYL R COWTAN God created us in his image, male and female, with personhood and sexual passions, so that when he c... JOHN PIPER Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there's no one left to tell those stor... CARRIE RYAN Anger - a beast within us that needs taming. SARU SINGHAL Each man lives in his own universe and when he dies the world is over BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON It was frustrating to still be in the dark about something and be given only so little light. LAUREN LOLA All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is
impossible. PAUL DICKSON Algren's Precepts: Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never
play cards with a man named Doc. And... PAUL DICKSON Albrecht's Law: Social innovations tend to the level of minimum
tolerable well being. PAUL DICKSON Ade's Law: Anybody can win--unless there happens to be a second
entry. PAUL DICKSON Acting, First Rule of: Whatever happens, look as if you intended
it to happen. PAUL DICKSON Acheson's Rule of Bureaucracy: A memorandum is written not to
inform the reader but to protect the ... PAUL DICKSON Accuracy, Rule of, Corollary: Provided, of course, that you know
there is a problem. PAUL DICKSON A clean tie attracts the soup of the day. PAUL DICKSON Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a
mistake when you make it again. PAUL DICKSON About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the
ends. PAUL DICKSON Acton's Law: Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts
absolutely. PAUL DICKSON Accuracy, Rule of: When working toward the solution of a
problem, it always helps if you know the ... PAUL DICKSON Rowe's Rule: the odds are five to six that the light at the end
of the tunnel is the headlight of ... PAUL DICKSON Lieutenant Dunbar wasn't really swallowed. But that was the
first word that stuck in his head. MICHAEL BLAKE A system tends to grow in complexity instead of simplicity, until
the resulting unreliability becom... PAUL DICKSON Allen's Law of Civilization: It is better for civilization to be
going down the drain than to be c... PAUL DICKSON Airplane Law, The: When the plane you are on is late, the plane
you want to transfer to is on time... PAUL DICKSON Advice, First Law of: The correct advice to give is the advice
that is desired. PAUL DICKSON Abrams's Advice: When eating an elephant, take one bite at a
time. PAUL DICKSON A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. PAUL DICKSON Allen's Law: Almost anything is easier to get into than out of. PAUL DICKSON Agnes Allen's Law: Almost anything is easier to get into than
out of. PAUL DICKSON Abbott's Admonitions: (1) If you have to ask, you're not
entitled to know. (2) If you don't like ... PAUL DICKSON A real person has two reasons for doing anything . . . a good
reason and the real reason. PAUL DICKSON A free agent is anything but. PAUL DICKSON Clay in the hands of a good potter suffers so many good turns, but in the end, we see its real and t... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Here is one fact 1 minute to finish the class, 1 day to die, one day behind that fact, one day in th... DEYTH BANGER You see, from where I stand, there are a couple of ways. You continue your journey and you will find... ACKSHAT DEOLI At the end of the warehouse was a dais constructed from pallets of books: stack of vampire novels, w... RICK RIORDAN Man is a logical machine run by the scoundrels of emotions. RAHEEL FAROOQ You're still lovely," Mor said a bit gently. Elain offered a half smile. "I suppose that war m... SARAH J. MAAS Every belief that you hold manifests itself in some manner by either causing you to take some form o... CHRIS PRENTISS Many times, you are the single most significant and glorious thing that has ever happened in the liv... C. JOYBELL C. When each and every believer rises up to serve others and function according to their capacity, the ... HENRY HON Absoballylutely top hole, wot. A and B the C of D I'd say. . . Above and Beyond the Call of Duty. BRIAN JACQUES We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth ha... L.M. MONTGOMERY If in barbed wire things can bloom, why couldn't I? I will not die, I will not die. FRIEDL AND THE CHILDREN OF TEREZIN Now is the only time we have, and the only time we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON She was scarcely a year older than I was, dark-haired, slender, with a face that would break your he... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN What motivates me in art is the ugly and beautiful nature of the truth. It has to be truthful and ho... CORIN NEMEC Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation. E.A. BUCCHIANERI The end is the matter! A step to the end is a factor! ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH The mark of a real man, is a man who can allow himself to fall deeply in love with a woman. But the ... C. JOYBELL C. Percy was getting tired of water. If he said that aloud, he would probably get kicked out of Po... RICK RIORDAN Now nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they being both the servants of his pro... SIR THOMAS BROWNE Now nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they
being both the servants of his pr... SIR THOMAS BROWNE I wish I was home", She said miserably. She tried so hard to be brave, to be fierce as a... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN Yay!” Tyson went around the couches and gave everyone a big hug—even Octavian, who didn't look t... RICK RIORDAN Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!” She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te labe... RICK RIORDAN If not for the horses, Piper would've died. RICK RIORDAN Pluto's pauldrons,” Reyna cursed. RICK RIORDAN An Indigo Bunting let out a trill, a cheery song, reminding me of better days, of hope and happiness... CHERYL R COWTAN While Maddox now believed the demon did not want to hurt Ashlyn, he wasn't willing to take a chance.... GENA SHOWALTER Mindfulness is observing the beauty of every moment unfolding before us. AMIT RAY What is the Other?" they ask. The Other is the one who taught me whatI should be like, but not ... PAULO COELHO The real thing that keeps men and women apart, is fear. Women blame men and men blame women, but the... C. JOYBELL C. You've never really trusted him, though you don't understand why. Something about the fact that he's... N.K. JEMISIN What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism. OCTAVIO PAZ The issue isn't whether he loved you, it's how much. Too much. Love can be poison SARAH J. MAAS I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belong to you. SARAH J. MAAS He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain... SARAH J. MAAS Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold ... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN Hodor," said Hodor. GEORGE R.R. MARTIN You do what you love, what you need SARAH J. MAAS I turned. Rhysand leaned against the archway into the sitting room, arms crossed, wings nowhere... SARAH J. MAAS There are types of people who want to have leverage over other people's lives. For no other reason t... C. JOYBELL C. Easing back in her seat, Grace watched the children in the playground opposite, coats off, faces flu... KATHLEEN TESSARO
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STEVEN PINKER The imposition of stigma is the commonest form of violence used in democratic societies. R. A. PINKER We are concerned with that curious bunch of nonconformists who explain their participation in negati... STEVEN BIKO Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands ... STEVEN PRESSFIELD I'm very fond of the British cinema. I'm a big fan of Martin Campbell and Daniel Craig. I ac... STEVEN BAUER The world is poised on the cusp of an economic and cultural shift as dramatic as that of the Industr... STEVEN LEVY I think I look really weird with short hair. So I figured if I've got a mustache, I think it loo... STEVEN ADAMS The gift that has been given to me says much about our capacity for great compassion and generosity,... STEVEN COJOCARU Most of the kids that I meet in the street are serious hardened criminals that I meet in the street,... STEVEN SEAGAL No industry is immune and no occupation is safe. All of us need to begin to think in terms of our ow... STEVEN PRESSFIELD It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by ... STEVEN SINOFSKY Courtney Love is a loose cannon. She says what she thinks. She's wild on the red carpet. You get... STEVEN COJOCARU Black Consciousness seeks to infuse the black community with a new-found pride in themselves, their ... STEVEN BIKO When I was on TV in the '80s, I wasn't thinking, 'There's a 10-year-old kid watching... STEVEN WRIGHT Thanks to decades of accumulated federal budget deficits and, more significantly, imprudent Medicare... STEVEN RATTNER I have an existential map; it has you are here written all over it. STEVEN WRIGHT Two babies were born on the same day at the same hospital. They lay there and looked at each other. ... STEVEN WRIGHT 'The Color Purple' is the kind of character piece that a director like Sidney Lumet could do... STEVEN SPIELBERG Warner Bros. has talked about going out with low-cost DVDs simultaneously in China because piracy is... STEVEN SODERBERGH I approached the bulk of my schoolwork as a chore rather than an intellectual adventure. STEVEN CHU Bloated budgets are ruining Hollywood - these pictures are squeezing all the other types of movies o... STEVEN SPIELBERG The entertainment world, television, movies, social media, YouTube stuff, we're so bombarded wit... STEVEN BOCHCO I was born with this. It's a hereditary genetic condition. This is something you can go your who... STEVEN COJOCARU I think there is a way to be formal and elegant and classy, but more modern. Brad Pitt has been chan... STEVEN COJOCARU I mean, as long as it doesn't have a bra attached, guys can take a risk and wear stylish things ... STEVEN TYLER Two babies were born on the same day at the same hospital. They lay there and looked at each other. ... STEVEN WRIGHT If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you str... STEVEN WRIGHT A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space... STEVEN WRIGHT