The interest in making or in seeing good paintings among classes previously indifferent towards them is in a way a symptom of everyman's search for spiritual integrity; it is another signal of a half-aware dissatisfaction with a merely materialistic life. Beauty in art and Nature is one side of spiritual appearance which, through the ages, has in poems, stories, paintings, drawings, and sculptures attracted man. But because it is so subtle and our perceptions so obscured, we find it first only in the forms of Nature, then in the forms of art, and finally in the intangible experiences of the deepest feeling.
What calls forth man's attraction toward fair scenes is in the end nothing other than the exquisite beauty of the spiritual link which he there has with God. This is why the productions of talented artists are to be welcomed and valued, but of course only to the extent that they are responses to this inspired call from within.
-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture > Chapter 1 : Appreciation > # 54
