Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.

'Tis the white stag, Fame, we're a-hunting, bid the world's hounds come to horn!

It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.

A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question. Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.

What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage

A man's hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.

But the one thing you should. not do is to suppose that when something is wrong with the arts, it is wrong with the arts ONLY.