A good taste in art feels the presence or the absence of merit; a just taste discriminates the degree--the poco piu and the poco meno. A good taste rejects faults; a just taste selects excellences. A good taste is often unconscious; a just taste is always conscious. A good taste may be lowered or spoilt; a just taste can only go on refining more and more.
Anna Brownell JamesonIn every mind where there is a strong tendency to fear there is a strong capacity to hate. Those who dwell in fear dwell nest door to hate; and I think it is the cowardice of women which makes them such intense haters.
Anna Brownell JamesonReputation being essentially contemporaneous, is always at the mercy of the Envious and the Ignorant. But Fame, whose very birth is posthumous, and which is only known to exist by the echo of its footsteps through congenial minds, can neither be increased nor diminished by any degree of wilfulness.
Anna Brownell JamesonConflict, which rouses up the best and highest powers in some characters, in others not only jars the whole being, but paralyzes the faculties.
Anna Brownell JamesonA bond is necessary to complete our being, only we must be careful that the bond does not become bondage.
Anna Brownell Jameson