“It is as though beautiful things have been placed here and there throughout the world to serve as small wake-up calls to perception, spurring lapsed alertness back to its most acute level.”
More from Elaine Scarry
“The moment of perceiving something beautiful confers on the perceiver the gift of life.”
“Perhaps only if one spins momentarily out of control, or grows feathers, or begins to…”
“Matisse never hoped to save lives. But he repeatedly said that he wanted to make paintings…”
“The beautiful person or thing incites in us the longing for truth because it provides by…”