The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same… — Friedrich Schiller
The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.
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Live with your century; but do not be its creature. Work for your contemporaries; but create what they need, not what they praise.
No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.
Nothing, it is true, is more common than for both Science and Art to pay homage to the spirit of the age, and for creative taste to accept the law of critical taste.
