“The difference between the first- and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition — it is a matter of a hair, a shade, an inward quiver of some kind — yet what miles away in the point of preciousness!”

—  William James

To Henry Rutgers Marshall (7 February 1899)
1920s, The Letters of William James (1920)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The difference between the first- and second-best things in art absolutely seems to escape verbal definition — it is a …" by William James?
William James photo
William James 246
American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist 1842–1910

Related quotes

Don DeLillo photo

“Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?'

What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

Bertrand Russell photo

“First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1930s, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935), Ch. 1: In Praise of Idleness

Jodi Picoult photo

“The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

James Brown photo

“Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.”

James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

Ekta Kapoor photo

“Art has different meaning for different people. For some its realism, for some its escapism, and you have to accept that.”

Ekta Kapoor (1975) TV and film producer

CNN News18 - Ekta Kapoor Interview with Rajeev Masand - 4 Oct 2019, at 4 Min 28 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX-C4jRzxM4
From interview with Rajeev Masand

“The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

"Purely Personal Prejudices" http://books.google.com/books?id=DLcEAQAAIAAJ&q=%22The+difference+between+patriotism+and+nationalism++is+that+the+patriot+is+proud+of+his+country+for+what+it+does+and+the+nationalist+is+proud+of+his+country+no+matter+what+it+does+the+first+attitude+creates+a+feeling+of+responsibility+but+the+second+a+feeling+of+blind+arrogance+that+leads+to+war%22&pg=PA228#v=onepage
Strictly Personal (1953)

Michel Foucault photo

“A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

“Practicing criticism, or, is it really important to think?”, interview by Didier Eribon, May 30-31, 1981, in Politics, Philosophy, Culture, ed. L. Kriztman (1988), p. 155

Juliet Marillier photo

“Good and bad; shade and sunlight, there's but a hair's breath between them. It's all one in the end.”

Juliet Marillier book Child of the Prophecy

Source: Child of the Prophecy

Henry James photo

“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Overheard by his nephew, Billy James, in 1902; quoted in Leon Edel, Henry James: A Life, vol V: The Master 1901-1916 (1972).

Thomas Robert Malthus photo

“Surely then some distinction between the different kinds of labour, with reference to their different effects on national wealth, must be admitted to be not only useful, but necessary; and if so, the question is what this distinction should be, and where the line between the different kinds of labour should be drawn.”

Thomas Robert Malthus Principles of Political Economy

Book I, Chapter I, Of The Definitions of Wealth and of Productive Labour, Section II, p. 43
Principles of Political Economy (Second Edition 1836)

Related topics