“A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss, Goethe said; a correct answer, Gertrude would have said, is like a slap in the face.”
Source: Pictures from an Institution (1954) [novel], Chapter 2, p. 68
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Randall Jarrell 215
poet, critic, novelist, essayist 1914–1965Related quotes
“There is no unique, correct answer in most cases. It is a matter of taste”
Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)
Context: There is no unique, correct answer in most cases. It is a matter of taste, depending on the circumstances... and the particular age you live in.... Gradually, you will develop your own taste, and along the way you may occasionally recognize that your taste may be the best one! It is the same as an art course.

“The correct answer to speech you abhor is bearing witness to what you believe.”
2010s, Who's too Weak to Live with Freedom? (2013)

The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination (1992) (Vintage edition, 1993, ), Preface, p. XV.
Context: These creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story — a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination.
Source: Jack of Shadows (1971), Chapter 1 (p. 11)

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2000s, 2008

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.”
Of Truth
Essays (1625)