Taste Quotes - Page 4

• Taste is the next gift to genius.

  James Russell Lowell

  Genius, Next

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.53

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• Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society.

  Madame de Stael

  Literature

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• It is that faculty by which we discover and enjoy the beautiful, the picturesque, and the sublime in literature, art, and nature; which recognizes a noble thought, as a virtuous mind welcomes a pure sentiment by a involuntary glow of satisfaction. But while the principle of perception is inherent in the soul, it requires a certain amount of knowledge to draw out and direct it.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Beautiful, Art, Soul

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• For the perception of the beautiful we have the term "taste"--a metaphor taken from that which is passive in the body and transferred to that which is active in the mind.

  Thomas Reid

  Beautiful, Taken, Perception

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• All our tastes are but reminiscences.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

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• It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observations of time and place and of decency in general, that what is called taste by way of distinction consists; and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment.

  Edmund Burke

  Reality, Skills, Way

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• A delicacy of taste is favorable to love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people, and making us indifferent to the company and conversation of the greater part of men.

  David Hume

  Men, People, Choices

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.93

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• Nothing is so improving to the temper as the study of the beauties either of poetry, eloquence, music, or painting.

  David Hume

  Study, Painting, Temper

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.579, Delphi Classics

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• It is known that the taste--whatever it is--is improved exactly as we improve our judgment, by extending our knowledge, by a steady attention to our object, and by frequent exercise.

  Edmund Burke

  Exercise, Attention, Judgment

  Edmund Burke (1792). “The works of ... Edmund Burke [ed. by W. King and F. Laurence].”, p.87

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• There are some readers who have never read an essay on taste; and if they take my advice they never will, for they can no more improve their taste by so doing than they could improve their appetite or digestion by studying a cookery-book.

  Robert Southey

  Book, Advice, Digestion

  Robert Southey (1865). “The Doctor, Etc”, p.99

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• True taste is forever growing, learning, reading, worshipping, laying its hand upon its mouth because it is astonished, casting its shoes from off its feet because it finds all ground holy.

  John Ruskin

  Reading, Feet, Hands

  John Ruskin (1849). “Of ideas of beauty”, p.25

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• Delicacy of taste has the same effect as delicacy of passion; it enlarges the sphere both of our happiness and our misery.

  David Hume

  Passion, Delicacy, Spheres

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.578, Delphi Classics

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• For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours.

  John Dryden

  Age, Youth, Pleasure

  John Dryden (1853). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden. With Illustrations by John Franklin”, p.260

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• Our purity of taste is best tested by its universality, for if we can only admire this thing or that, we maybe use that our cause for liking is of a finite and false nature.

  John Ruskin

  Causes, Purity, Admire

  John Ruskin (2013). “Selections and Essays”, p.87, Courier Corporation

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• A fastidious taste is like a squeamish appetite; the one has its origin in some disease of the mind, as the other has in some ailment of the stomach.

  Robert Southey

  Mind, Disease, Appetite

  Robert Southey (1865). “The Doctor, Etc”, p.42

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• It seems with wit and good-nature, Utrum horum mavis accipe. Taste and good-nature are universally connected.

  William Shenstone

  Wit, Good Nature, Connected

  William Shenstone (1764). “The Works in Verse and Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq: Most of which Were Never Before Printed ...”, p.183

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• Taste is the best judge. It is rare. Art only addresses itself to an excessively small number of individuals.

  Paul Cezanne

  Art, Small Numbers, Judging

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• In our democratic culture people often think it is threatening to judge another person's taste. Some are even offended by the suggestion that there is a difference between good and bad taste, or that it matters what you look at or read or listen to.

  Roger Scruton

  Thinking, Differences, Judging

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• Everyone has taste, yet it is more of a taboo subject than sex or money. The reason for this is simple: claims about your attitudes to or achievements in the carnal and financial arenas can be disputed only by your lover and your financial advisers, whereas by making statements about your taste you expose body and soul to terrible scrutiny. Taste is a merciless betrayer of social and cultural attitudes. Thus, while anybody will tell you as much (and perhaps more than) you want to know about their triumphs in bed and at the bank, it is taste that gets people's nerves tingling.

  Stephen Bayley

  Sex, Attitude, Simple

  Stephen Bayley (2000). “General Knowledge”, Booth-Clibborn

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• Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.

  Joshua Reynolds

  Would Be, Genius, Teach

  'Discourses on Art' (ed. R. Wark, 1975) no. 3 (14 December 1770)

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• Good taste is as tiring as good company.

  Francis Picabia

  Tire, Good Company, Company

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• You must know that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion... different temperaments... differences in the capacity to comprehend.

  Ramakrishna

  Differences, Different, Digestion

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• To patronize the faculty of taste is to patronize oneself. For taste governs every free - as opposed to rote - human response.

  Susan Sontag

  Faculty, Response, Humans

  Susan Sontag (2014). “A Susan Sontag Reader”, p.160, Macmillan

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• There are times when you have to choose between being human and having good taste.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Human Nature, Being Human, Humans

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• Beware of luxury! Beware of acquiring the taste and need for it, under the pretext of providing for the morrow.

  Paul Gauguin

  Luxury, Needs, Morrow

  Paul Gauguin (2012). “Noa Noa: The Tahitian Journal”, p.17, Courier Corporation

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