Poetical feelings are a peril to scholarship. There are…
“Poetical feelings are a peril to scholarship. There are always poetical people ready to protest that a corrupt line is exquisite. Exquisite to whom? The Romans were foreigners writing for foreigners two millenniums ago; and for people whose gods we find quaint, whose savagery we abominate, whose private habits we don't like to talk about, but whose idea of what is exquisite is, we flatter ourselves, mysteriously identical to ours.”
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
The quote critiques how aesthetic judgments can be biased by cultural and scholarly pretensions, suggesting that what is deemed "exquisite" often reflects the judge's own worldview rather than an objective standard.
In simple terms: Taste is shaped by one's own culture and biases.
Key Takeaway
Question your own standards of beauty.
Themes
culture
bias
art criticism
subjectivity
history
Mood
reflective
critical
introspective
Type
analytical
philosophical
When to use this quote
- Literary analysis
- art education
- museum curation
- cross‑cultural dialogue
Key Concepts
Aesthetic relativism
cultural hegemony
scholarly arrogance
Questions to Reflect On
- How do your cultural assumptions affect what you consider beautiful?
- Can "exquisite" ever be truly objective?
A Different Perspective
The claim of universal taste can ignore marginalized perspectives.