Science grows and Beauty dwindles.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that as science advances, the appreciation for beauty may diminish.
In this quote, Alfred Lord Tennyson expresses a concern that the relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge and technological advancement may come at the cost of our appreciation for beauty and the arts. It highlights a dichotomy between the empirical world of science, which focuses on facts and rationality, and the subjective experience of beauty, which is fundamental to human emotion and creativity. Tennyson seems to warn that an overemphasis on scientific progress could lead to a neglect of the aesthetic and emotional aspects of life that enrich our existence.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of arts education, one might quote Tennyson to emphasize the need for balance.
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
Earth is dry to the centre,_x000D_ But spring, a new comer,_x000D_ A spring rich and strange,_x000D_ Shall make the winds blow_x000D_ Round and round,_x000D_ Thro' and thro',_x000D_ Here and there,_x000D_ Till the air_x000D_ And the ground_x000D_ Shall be fill'd with life anew.
O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus
The premonition of madness is complicated by the fear of lucidity in madness, the fear of the moments of return and reunion... One would welcome chaos if one were not afraid of lights in it.
The gospel is not a truth among other truths. Rather, it sets a question mark against all truths.
Earth has one angel less and heaven one more, since yesterday.
Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.
Overcrowding in the cities is producing a collective madness in which irrational violence flourishes because man needs more space in which to be than the modern city allows.
Why do we cling to bigotry? Because bigotry, plainly, is convenient. It is a near-effortless way to both elevate one's stature and make a pity grab in this culture of victims that we have become.
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