9 insights on beauty and art

Introduction. Henry Tuckerman was a fascinating 19th century American writer. Discover 9 interesting quotes on the many uses of fiction, why "suggestive" art is powerful, and more 👇

The many uses of fiction: "Fiction interprets humanity, informs the understanding, and quickens the affections. It reflects ourselves, warns us against prevailing social follies, adds rich specimens to our cabinets of character, dramatizes life for the unimaginative."

High art v/s pop art: "As the falcon launched trustingly heavenward is lost to view, the course of the higher poetry often soars beyond...the multitude; and, as the humble birds carol blithely round our dwellings, so the meeker lays of the muse linger tunefully about the heart."

Arguments can't convince a man to fight; an innate fighting drive and emotion-tugging anthems can: "A martial strain will urge a man into the front rank of battle sooner than an argument, and a fine anthem excite his devotion more certainly than a logical discourse."

The words we use often reveal our inner nature: "It is amusing to detect character in the vocabulary of each person. The adjectives habitually used, like the inscriptions on a thermometer, indicate the temperament."

On beauty: "The soul, by an instinct stronger than reason, ever associates beauty with truth." To dig more into this, check out Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart.

There's something tragic in everything beautiful: "There is more or less of pathos in all true beauty. The delight it awakens has an indefinable, and, as it were, luxurious sadness, which is perhaps one element of its might."

To interpret beauty too much is to spoil its charm: "To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy than to attempt to understand."

When you become passionate, previously invisible facts now become visible: “When the native sentiments are once interested, new facts spring to light.” The “eye of mere curiosity” can’t see certain things, only “veneration” can.

Art is more powerful when it leaves things to your imagination: "Without the definiteness of sculpture and painting, music is, for that very reason, far more suggestive. Like Milton's Eve, an outline, an impulse, is furnished, and the imagination does the rest."