If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
Natural beauty is essentially temporary and sad, hence the impression of obscene mockery which artificial flowers give us.
Interpretation
Natural beauty is fleeting and its impermanence can evoke sadness, making artificial beauty seem mockingly inadequate.
This quote by John Updike reflects on the transient nature of natural beauty, suggesting that its temporary existence brings a sense of melancholy. It contrasts this with artificial flowers, which, although not genuine, highlight the irony and sadness of trying to replicate beauty that is meant to be ephemeral.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of preserving nature, one might reference this quote to discuss the value of real beauty.
If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
But no artist, I now realize, can be satisfied with art alone. There is a natural craving for recognition which cannot be gain-said.
I believe that one of the secret engines that allows cinema to work, and have the marvelous power over us that it does, is the fact that for thousands of years we have spent eight hours every night in a 'cinematic' dream-state, and so are familiar with this version of reality.
It is true that all men are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator. If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for us
I wanted pretty pictures of older women - women who are trying too hard but succeeding - pulling off an extreme look. What I didn't know would creep into the portraits was a vulnerability behind the strong facade that most of them wear.
The best prose is written by authors who see their universe with a poetβs eyes.
The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art; and (2) sedition.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.