Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find some universal formula for it. – Walter Pater
What is important, then, is not that the critic should possess a correct abstract definition of beauty for the intellect, but a certain kind of temperament, the power of being deeply moved by the presence of beautiful objects. – Walter Pater
Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world. – 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 an important element in the general temper of our modern poetry. – Walter Pater
My mom and I used to listen to records, read, and take train rides across the country in the summer. It was a very chill life. She didnt expose me to anything that was ahead of my development, but she expected me to adjust to her world – she did not expect to adjust to mine. – Martha Plimpton