--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Such discussions help us very little to…" description: "\"Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg" --- # Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has… ![“Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.” quote by Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg) > “Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.” [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Art criticism often loses depth when it tries to label works with vague terms instead of nuanced appreciation. **In simple terms:** Critiquing art with vague words reduces depth. Key Takeaway Seek precise language in art critique. Themes art criticism language precision appreciation Mood thoughtful analytical Type critical philosophical When to use this quote - museum tours - literary analysis - art education - writing reviews Key Concepts aesthetics semantic clarity critical theory Questions to Reflect On - How can critics balance precision with accessibility? - What words best convey artistic excellence? A Different Perspective Precise terms may alienate casual audiences. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Art Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art-poetry-290154/) [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Done](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/done/) [Enjoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enjoy/) [Enjoy Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enjoy-art-290153/) [Excellence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/excellence/) [Excellence Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/excellence-art-290155/) [Excellent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/excellent/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Poetry Discriminate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-discriminate-290152/) [Precise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/precise/) [Use](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/use/) [Use Words](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/use-words/) [Well done](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/well-done/) ## Related quotes > [Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/many-attempts-have-been-made-by-writers-on-art-and-poetry-to-define/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/excellence-is-not-an-art-it-is-the-habit-of-practice/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [Excellence in art is to be attained only by active effort, and not by passive impressions; by the manly overcoming of difficulties, by patient…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-stillman-hillard/excellence-in-art-is-to-be-attained-only-by-active-effort-and-not-by/) [George Stillman Hillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-stillman-hillard/) > [Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/excellence-is-an-art-won-by-training-and-habituation-we-do-not-act-3/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [“All who have achieved excellence in art possess one thing in common; that is, a mind to be one with nature, throughout the seasons.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matsuo-basho/all-who-have-achieved-excellence-in-art-possess-one-thing-in-common/) [Matsuo Bashō](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matsuo-basho/) > [Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/excellence-is-an-art-won-by-training-and-habituation/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [As the excellence of steel is strength, and the excellence of art is beauty, so the excellence of mankind is moral character.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aiden-wilson-tozer/as-the-excellence-of-steel-is-strength-and-the-excellence-of-art-is/) [Aiden Wilson Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aiden-wilson-tozer/) > [The excellence of every art, must consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-reynolds/the-excellence-of-every-art-must-consist-in-the-complete/) [Joshua Reynolds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-reynolds/) > [“Excellence is an Art Won by Training and Habit. We do not act rightly Because we have Virtue and Excellence, But rather, we have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/excellence-is-an-art-won-by-training-and-habit-we-do-not-act-rightly/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and--prayer.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-nestell-bovee/excellence-in-art-is-largely-the-result-of-attention-to-minutiae-and/) [Christian Nestell Bovee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-nestell-bovee/) > [The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/the-excellence-of-every-art-is-its-intensity-capable-of-making-all-2/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/excellence-is-an-art-won-by-training-and-habituation-we-do-not-act/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/the-excellence-of-every-art-is-its-intensity-capable-of-making-all/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [The excellence of every Art is its intensity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/the-excellence-of-every-art-is-its-intensity/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [No one, though has to go to college to make or understand or enjoy art. Wonderful artists and critics - some of the best…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-adams/no-one-though-has-to-go-to-college-to-make-or-understand-or-enjoy-art/) [Robert Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-adams/) ## More by Walter Pater > [A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-counted-number-of-pulses-only-is-given-to-us-of-a-variegated/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [What we have to do is to be forever curiously testing new opinions and courting new impressions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/what-we-have-to-do-is-to-be-forever-curiously-testing-new-opinions/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/one-of-the-most-beautiful-passages-of-rousseau-is-that-in-the-sixth/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/for-art-comes-to-you-proposing-frankly-to-give-nothing-but-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/every-moment-some-form-grows-perfect-in-hand-or-face-some-tone-on-the/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/not-to-discriminate-every-moment-some-passionate-attitude-in-those/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe, is indeed an element in all true works of art: that they shall excite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-certain-strangeness-something-of-the-blossoming-of-the-aloe-is/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The younger, certainly, had to the full that charm of a constitutional freshness of aspect which may defy for a long time extravagant or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-younger-certainly-had-to-the-full-that-charm-of-a-constitutional/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/books-are-a-refuge-a-sort-of-cloistral-refuge-from-the-vulgarities-of/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [The base of all artistic genius is the power of conceiving humanity in a new, striking, rejoicing way, of putting a happy world ofits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-base-of-all-artistic-genius-is-the-power-of-conceiving-humanity/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“art is self-sufficient and need serve no moral or political purpose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/art-is-self-sufficient-and-need-serve-no-moral-or-political-purpose/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for, after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/in-a-sense-it-might-even-be-said-that-our-failure-is-to-form-habits/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [“The essence of humanism is that belief of which he seems never to have doubted, that nothing which has ever interested living men and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/the-essence-of-humanism-is-that-belief-of-which-he-seems-never-to/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/a-very-intimate-sense-of-the-expressiveness-of-outward-things-which/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) > [That sense of a life in natural objects, which in most poetry is but a rhetorical artifice, was, then, in Wordsworth the assertion of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/that-sense-of-a-life-in-natural-objects-which-in-most-poetry-is-but-a/) [Walter Pater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) [Explore all 69 Walter Pater quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/before-noah-men-having-only-water-to-drink-could-not-find-the-truth/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/hear-the-sum-of-the-whole-matter-in-the-compass-of-one-brief-word/) [Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/) > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-capacity-to-be-puzzled-is-the-premise-of-all-creation-be-it-in/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) [Taf Teh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/taf-teh/) > [The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-loos/the-house-has-to-serve-comfort-the-work-of-art-is-revolutionary-the/) [Adolf Loos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-loos/) > [During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/during-human-progress-every-science-is-evolved-out-of-its/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-dragon/i-think-a-business-guy-is-different-from-an-artist-they-walk/) [G-Dragon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-dragon/) > [“The only thing--I tell you this straight from the heart--that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/the-only-thing-i-tell-you-this-straight-from-the-heart-that-disgusts/) [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/) > [The sublime in art is the attempt to express the infinite without finding in the realm of phenomena any object which proves itself fitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-sublime-in-art-is-the-attempt-to-express-the-infinite-without/) [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/) > [Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/art-isn-t-done-to-decorate-apartments-but-to-wage-war-against-the/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) [Browse all 48,643 Art quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate between what is more and what is less excellent in them, or to use words like beauty, excellence, art, poetry, with a more precise meaning than they would otherwise have.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Pater" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to-enjoy-what-has-been-well-done/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Art" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to-enjoy-what-has-been-well-done/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/77f/walter-pater-9808_art_such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to_1622331.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Such discussions help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry, to discriminate…” — Walter Pater", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Walter Pater", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-pater/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Such discussions help us very little...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to-enjoy-what-has-been-well-done/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-pater/such-discussions-help-us-very-little-to-enjoy-what-has-been-well-done/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```