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The perfection of an art consists in the employment of a comprehensive system of laws, commensurate to every purpose within its scope, but concealed from the eye of the spectator; and in the production of effects that seem to flow forth spontaneously, as though uncontrolled by their influence, and which are equally excellent, whether regarded individually, or in reference to the proposed result.

— John Mason Good The Book of Nature (1826)

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Art

More quotes by John Mason Good

Now, happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature: it is a running stream and not a stagnant pool.

The Book of Nature (1826)

Taste is that faculty which selects and relishes such combinations of ideas as produce genuine beauty, and rejects the contrary.

The Book of Nature (1826)

Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep,
Need we to prove a God is here;
The Daisy, fresh from Winter's sleep,
Tells of his hand in lines as clear.

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

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The great artists are the ones who dare to entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?

André Gide The Immoralist (1902)

A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean.

George MacDonald The Fantastic Imagination (1893)

Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.

José Ortega y Gasset The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel (1925)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Mason Good (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.