How Jordan Peterson thinks about beauty

Make one thing in your life as beautiful as you can. That will be a direct “invitation to the divine.”

Beauty is absolutely terrifying to people because it highlights what’s ugly.

Great art will “invade your life and change it.” You should let this happen. JP: “Buy a piece of art. Find one that speaks to you and make the purchase.”

Art is not a luxury but a core need. We use art to “unite ourselves psychologically” and establish “productive peace” with others.

Jordan Peterson on how we live by beauty: “We live by beauty. We live by literature. We live by art. We cannot live without some connection to the divine—and beauty is divine—because in its absence life is too short, too dismal, and too tragic.”

Beautiful ideas are tools: “A good theory lets you use things—things that once appeared useless—for desirable ends. In consequence, such a theory has a general sense of excitement and hope about it.”

Modern architecture saves costs but destroys the soul: “Hell is a place of drop ceilings, rusted ventilation grates, and fluorescent lights. Everyone looks like a corpse under fluorescents. Penny-wise and pound-foolish indeed.”

Why religious buildings are beautiful: “If you’re going to house the ultimate ideal, you build something beautiful to represent its dwelling place.”

Art is not decoration. It’s exploration. It is wrong to think that art should be “pretty and easily appreciated.” Great art is always a noble “challenge” because it actually retools our perception. Great artists “train people to see.”

The beauty of nature often blinds us to its dark side. JP: “No matter how beautiful the natural world, we should remember that it is always conspiring to starve, sicken, and kill us."

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