--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: taste governs every free - as opposed to…" description: "\"taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response. Nothing is more decisive. There is taste in people, visual taste, taste in emotion - an..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a8/susan-sontag-332_emotion_taste-governs-every-free-as-opposed-to-r_752282.jpg" --- # taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human… ![“taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response. Nothing is more decisive. There is taste in people, visual taste, taste in emotion - and there is taste in acts, taste in morality. Intelligence, as well, is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a8/susan-sontag-332_emotion_taste-governs-every-free-as-opposed-to-r_752282.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a8/susan-sontag-332_emotion_taste-governs-every-free-as-opposed-to-r_752282.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a8/susan-sontag-332_emotion_taste-governs-every-free-as-opposed-to-r_752282.jpg) > “taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response. Nothing is more decisive. There is taste in people, visual taste, taste in emotion - and there is taste in acts, taste in morality. Intelligence, as well, is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Taste shapes our judgments in aesthetics, emotion, morality, and even intellect, guiding choices beyond rote behavior. **In simple terms:** Taste influences judgments beyond habit. Key Takeaway Cultivate refined taste in all areas. Themes aesthetics morality intellect judgment Mood reflective analytical Type philosophical critical When to use this quote - art criticism - personal relationships - ethical decision making Key Concepts subjectivity cultural capital sensory perception Questions to Reflect On - How does your cultural background shape your taste? - Can taste be taught? A Different Perspective Taste is subjective and can be biased by culture. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Emotion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/emotion/) [Humans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humans/) [Ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ideas/) [Intelligence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intelligence/) [Morality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morality/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Politics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/politics/) ## Related quotes > [Taste tends to develop very unevenly. It's rare that the same person has good visual taste and good taste in people and taste in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/taste-tends-to-develop-very-unevenly-it-s-rare-that-the-same-person/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To patronize the faculty of taste is to patronize oneself. For taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-patronize-the-faculty-of-taste-is-to-patronize-oneself-for-taste/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/intelligence-is-really-a-kind-of-taste-taste-in-ideas/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ruskin/taste-is-the-only-morality-tell-me-what-you-like-and-i-ll-tell-you/) [John Ruskin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ruskin/) > [“it appears that my bourgeois education inculcated hopelessly false notions of taste and morality, and along with them the pressing need to disseminate them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-mavor/it-appears-that-my-bourgeois-education-inculcated-hopelessly-false/) Elizabeth Mavor > [“Taste is the only morality.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/randolph-bourne/taste-is-the-only-morality/) [Randolph Bourne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/randolph-bourne/) > [Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/al-pacino/look-but-don-t-touch-touch-but-don-t-taste-taste-but-don-t-swallow/) [Al Pacino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/al-pacino/) > [There is no accounting for taste and no taste for accounting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-byrne/there-is-no-accounting-for-taste-and-no-taste-for-accounting/) Kevin Byrne > [Taste as you go. When you taste the food throughout the cooking process you can make adjustments as you go.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-burrell/taste-as-you-go-when-you-taste-the-food-throughout-the-cooking/) [Anne Burrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-burrell/) > [We all need a splash of bad taste. No taste is what I am against.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diana-vreeland/we-all-need-a-splash-of-bad-taste-no-taste-is-what-i-am-against/) [Diana Vreeland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diana-vreeland/) > [If your choice enters into it, then taste is involved - bad taste, good taste, uninteresting taste. Taste is the enemy of art, A-R-T.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-duchamp/if-your-choice-enters-into-it-then-taste-is-involved-bad-taste-good/) [Marcel Duchamp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-duchamp/) > [“Don't forget, taste, taste, taste.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kathleen-flinn/don-t-forget-taste-taste-taste/) [Kathleen Flinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kathleen-flinn/) > [“eh! All of you! come here!! taste it! taste it, taste it, taste it!!!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-ramsay/eh-all-of-you-come-here-taste-it-taste-it-taste-it-taste-it/) [Gordon Ramsay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-ramsay/) > [What separates great jazz musicians from average ones is Taste. Those who have taste consistently choose notes, tempos, timbres and voicings that seduce and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marc-myers/what-separates-great-jazz-musicians-from-average-ones-is-taste-those/) Marc Myers > [The moment one starts sharing one's being without any motive life becomes a sweet fragrance. It is all honey. Then everything remains the same,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/the-moment-one-starts-sharing-one-s-being-without-any-motive-life/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? 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To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Emotion quotes > [It can sometimes make people fold into themselves and kind of run away, but I think in this case these characters are being forced…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-deschanel/it-can-sometimes-make-people-fold-into-themselves-and-kind-of-run/) [Emily Deschanel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-deschanel/) > [Every action that helps us manifest our divine nature more and more is good; every action that retards it is evil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/every-action-that-helps-us-manifest-our-divine-nature-more-and-more/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [Of course I like you. 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