“He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue of style, perfect explicitness is not a necessary virtue.”

Gérard de Nerval.
The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899)

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 "He knew that the whole mystery of beauty can never be comprehended by the crowd, and that while clearness is a virtue o…" by Arthur Symons?
Arthur Symons photo
Arthur Symons 21
British poet 1865–1945

Related quotes

Stuart Merrill photo

“I believe Beauty is the condition of the perfect life, just as important as Virtue and Truth.”

Stuart Merrill (1863–1915) American poet, who wrote mostly in the French language

"Credo"

Sallust photo

“For the fame of riches and beauty is fickle and frail, while virtue is eternally excellent.”
Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur.

Sallust (-86–-34 BC) Roman historian, politician

For the glory of wealth and beauty is fleeting and perishable; that of the mind is illustrious and immortal.
Source: Bellum Catilinae (c. 44 BC), Chapter I; Variant translation:

Frithjof Schuon photo
Diogenes Laërtius photo

“The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Aristotle, 13.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics

Rudyard Kipling photo

“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch”

Stanza 4.
The Second Jungle Book (1895), If— (1896)
Context: If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Pythagoras photo

“To use Virtue is perfect blessedness.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

The Sayings of the Wise (1555)

José Martí photo

“It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)

Patrice Lumumba photo

“A minimum of comfort is necessary for the practice of virtue.”

Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961) Congolese Prime Minister, cold war leader, executed

Congo, My Country

Leo Tolstoy photo
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali photo

Related topics