...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.
Interpretation
Beauty serves a purpose beyond aesthetics; it nurtures the human spirit and fosters kindness.
In this quote, Gregory Maguire reflects on the significance of beauty in life, suggesting that while its purpose may be elusive, it plays a crucial role in uplifting the human spirit. He implies that beauty is not merely decorative but serves to soften life's hardships and promote kindness among people, ultimately enhancing our experience of the world.
In practice
In a discussion about art and its impact on society, this quote can emphasize the importance of beauty in our lives.
And of the Witch? In the life of a Witch, there is no "after", in the "ever after" of a Witch there is no "happily"; in the story of a Witch, there is no afterword. Of that part that is beyond the life story, beyond the story of the life, there is-alas, or perhaps thank mercy-no telling. She was dead, dead, and gone, and all that was left of her was the carapace of her reputation for malice.
She watched the sun bleed water out of the icicle. Warm and cold working together to make an icicle. Warm and cold anger working together to make a fury, a fury worthy enough to use as a weapon against the old things that still needed fighting.
The world rarely shrieks its meaning at you. It whispers, in private languages and obscure modalities, in arcane and quixotic imagery, through symbol systems in which every element has multiple meanings determined by juxtaposition.
The further on we go, the more meaning there is, but the less articulable. You live your life and the older you get- the more specifically you harvest- the more precious becomes every ounce and spasm. Your life and times don’t drain of meaning because they become more contradictory, ornamented by paradox, inexplicable. The less explicable, the more meaning. The less like a mathematics equation (a sum game); the more like music (significant secret).
Birds know themselves not to be at the center of anything, but at the margins of everything. The end of the map. We only live where someone's horizon sweeps someone else's. We are only noticed on the edge of things; but on the edge of things, we notice much.
In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.
A film is a terrible thing to waste.
Sometimes my mistakes turn into interesting music because I do things that aren't supposed to be done.
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
Novels aren’t just happy escapes; they are slivers of people’s souls, nailed to the pages, dripping ink from veins of wood pulp. Reading the right one at the right time can make all the difference.
One day, I will be a poet. Water will depend on my visions.
In difficult times, people just like to hear music. They like to be moved by what they hear. And music speaks different languages.
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