Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
VoltaireRead
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the relationship between contrasting elements in art and their coexistence without contradiction.
Voltaire reflects on the idea that while small and large elements in a painting may contrast, they do not necessarily oppose one another. He distinguishes between mere color contrasts, which can enhance a piece of art, and colors that are truly contrary, which disrupt the visual harmony. This notion can be metaphorically extended to various aspects of life, where differences can coexist and even enrich experiences.
Themes
ContrastColorsArtHarmonyOpposition
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote to illustrate the importance of contrasts in a school art presentation.
More from Voltaire
All quotes →He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.
VoltaireRead
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
VoltaireRead
It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
VoltaireRead
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature.
VoltaireRead
It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.
VoltaireRead
Similar quotes
To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits while watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.
John WatersRead
'Tristan' is a very unique case, not just in Wagner's output, but in music in general. It remains contemporary no matter what else surrounds it. There is something self-renewing about it.
Daniel BarenboimRead
The second, and I think this is the much more overt and I think it is the main cause, I have been increasingly demonstrating or trying to demonstrate that every possible stance a critic, a scholar, a teacher can take towards a poem is itself inevitably and necessarily poetic.
Harold BloomRead
Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of painting... Drawing contains everything, except the hue
Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresRead
Then I felt something inside me break and music began to pour out into the quiet. My fingers danced; intricate and quick they spun something gossamer and tremulous into the circle of light our fire had made. The music moved like a spiderweb stirred by a gentle breath, it changed like a leaf twisting as it falls to the ground, and it felt like three years Waterside in Tarbean, with a hollowness inside you and hands that ached from the bitter cold.
Patrick RothfussRead
Architecture begins where engineering ends.
Walter GropiusRead