“It is true that an observer, under that softening influence of the fine arts which makes other people’s hardships picturesque, might have been delighted with this homestead called Freeman’s End.”

—  George Eliot, book Middlemarch

Middlemarch (1871)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is true that an observer, under that softening influence of the fine arts which makes other people’s hardships pictu…" by George Eliot?
George Eliot photo
George Eliot300
English novelist, journalist and translator 1819–1880

Related quotes

Patrick Matthew photo

“Throughout this volume, we have felt considerable inconvenience, from the dogmatical classification of plants, and have all along been floundering between species and variety, which certainly under culture soften into each other.”

Patrick Matthew (1790–1874) British scientist

On naval timber and arboriculture (1831), Appendix F, part II

Sebastian Junger photo

“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It's time for that to end.”

Sebastian Junger (1962) American author, journalist and documentarian

Source: Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

“The one place for art-as-art is the museum of fine art. The reason of the museum or fine art is the preservation of ancient and modern art that cannot be made again and that does not have to be done again. A museum of fine art should exclude everything but fine art, and be separate of museums of ethnology, geology, archaeology, history... Any disturbance of a true museum's soundlessness, timelessness, airlessness, and lifelessness is a disrespect.”

Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American painter

Source: 1956 - 1967, Art-as-Art Dogma' part II, (1964), p. 155

Vilfredo Pareto photo

“Empirical laws […] have only slight or even no value beyond the limits within which they have been observed to be true.”

Vilfredo Pareto book Manual of Political Economy

page 291.
Manual of Political Economy

“He also knew when to stop. In the fine art of deceit and personal advancement as in any other calling this is the hallmark of the master.”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Groan

Source: Titus Groan (1946), Chapter 31 “Reintroducing the Twins” (p. 173)

Edvard Munch photo

“My ideas developed under the influence of the bohemians or rather under Hans Jager [leader of the 'Kristiania Bohemia' since 1883]. Many people have mistakenly claimed that my ideas were formed under the influence of Strindberg and the Germans.... but that is wrong. They had already been formed by then.”

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker

Quote in a draft letter to Broby-Johansen, Berlin, 11 December 1926, Munch Museum
1896 - 1930

“It's a fine world, though rich in hardships at times.”

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove

Source: Lonesome Dove

Viggo Mortensen photo

“You don't have to make something that people call art. Living is an artistic activity, there is an art to getting through the day.”

Viggo Mortensen (1958) American actor

Walter Schellenberg photo

“No one. That was the difficulty of my position. Any day something might happen to me. Himmler told me at the end of April 1945, after I had held a conference with the Zionist leader in Sweden, that he felt sorry for what he had done in his life, regretted his sneakiness toward other people, and excused himself for that. He said, to quote Himmler from my memory: 'If I had only listened to you, Schellenberg, in 1943, there still would have been time to do something for the German people.' I always had the impression that Himmler was under the influence of Hitler. Himmler was suggestible - could easily have been under the influence of Hitler. Himmler conspired with me too much for it to be true that Hitler was under Himmler's influence. Himmler and I plotted against Hitler too much for that. Toward the end of 1943 Himmler actually talked with me about killing Hitler. That was the danger in my position. Should someone change his mind, it would be the end of me. It became even more obvious after the Attentat of July 20, 1944, when Kaltenbrunner worked more and more closely with Hitler. Kaltenbrunner conspired against Himmler.”

Walter Schellenberg (1910–1952) German general

To Leon Goldensohn, after being asked if Himmler trusted anyone (13 March 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" - by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

Related topics