That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity β that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty.
Charles BaudelaireRead
Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.
Interpretation
True beauty and nobility stem from careful thought and logical reasoning.
In this quote, Baudelaire suggests that all that we consider beautiful and noble is not merely a result of emotion or chance, but rather the outcome of deliberate reasoning and meticulous planning. It emphasizes the idea that aesthetics and virtue are intertwined with rationality, and that appreciating beauty involves understanding the thought processes behind it.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the intersection of art and logic.
That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity β that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, are a essential part and characteristic of beauty.
The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
Who among us has not dreamt, in moments of ambition, of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical without rhythm and rhyme, supple and staccato enough to adapt to the lyrical stirrings of the soul, the undulations of dreams, and sudden leaps of consciousness.
There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.
The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial.
If you have a group of people come together around a vision for real discipleship, people who are committed to grow, committed to change, committed to learn, then a spiritual assessment tool can work.
This truth within thy mind rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better, boundless worse.
The fish is my friend too...I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars. Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky; he thought
Emancipated' women found out that the honesty, generosity, and camaraderie of men was a lie.
It was obvious that he was a man who marched through life to the rhythms of some drum I would never hear.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
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