Don't just live the length of your life - live the width of it as well.
Diane AckermanRead
Much of life becomes background, but it is the province of art to throw buckets of light into the shadows and make life new again.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art helps to illuminate and refresh our understanding of life by revealing beauty in the mundane.
In this quote, Diane Ackerman suggests that while much of life can often feel mundane and unnoticed, art has the unique ability to shine a light on those overlooked aspects, revealing their beauty and significance. By doing so, art revitalizes our perception of life, encouraging us to see the world with renewed eyes and appreciation.
Themes
ArtLifeBeautyPerceptionRenewal
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of creativity in society, one might use this quote to emphasize art's transformative power.
More from Diane Ackerman
All quotes βWe try to exile ourselves more and more from nature - not always consciously: We build houses; we dismiss nature; nature has to be outside, because we're inside. God forbid something like a cockroach comes inside, or some dust.
Diane AckermanRead
We ogle plants and animals up close on television, the Internet and in the movies. We may not worship the animals we see, but we still regard them as necessary physical and spiritual companions. Technological nature can't completely satisfy that yearning.
Diane AckermanRead
Because IQ tests favor memory skills and logic, overlooking artistic creativity, insight, resiliency, emotional reserves, sensory gifts, and life experience, they can't really predict success, let alone satisfaction.
Diane AckermanRead
American writer_x000D_ _x000D_ 1803-1882_x000D_ _x000D_ Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.
Diane AckermanRead
In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold.
Diane AckermanRead
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His outflung hands traced over the threads of his rug, passed loop by loop through some patient woman's hands. Or maybe she hadn't been patient. Maybe she'd been tired, or irritated, or distracted, or hungry, or angry. Maybe she had been dying. But her hands had kept moving, all the same.
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