“… we
do not admire what
we cannot understand.”
Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer
Source: Complete Poems
Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1972).
“… we
do not admire what
we cannot understand.”
Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer
Source: Complete Poems
“We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Nous aimons toujours ceux qui nous admirent; et nous n'aimons pas toujours ceux que nous admirons.
Maxim 294.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Charles Stross book Singularity Sky
Source: Singularity Sky (2003), Chapter 7, “A Semiotic War” (p. 159)
“Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.”
Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
1870s
Variant: Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.
Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Concepts
“For no fact is so simple we believe it at first sight,
And there is nothing that exists so great or marvellous
That over time mankind does not admire it less and less.”
Sed neque tam facilis res ulla est, quin ea primum
difficilis magis ad credendum constet, itemque
nil adeo magnum neque tam mirabile quicquam,
quod non paulatim minuant mirarier omnes.
Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher
Book II, lines 1026–1029 (tr. Stallings)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
George Saintsbury (1845–1933) British literary critic
Vol. 1, pp. 4–5
A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day