Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them. – Johann von Goethe

I never know whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses. – William Makepeace Thackeray

I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether. – Socrates