"Tragedy is an imitation not only of..." - Quote by Aristotle
Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear and pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. The tragic wonder will then be great than if they happened of themselves or by accident; for even coincidences are most striking when they have an air of design.
More by Aristotle
“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development”
“Art is identical with a state of capacity to make, involving a true course of reasoning.”
“Most persons think that a state in order to be happy ought to be large; but even if they are right, they have no idea of what is a large and what a small state.... To the size of states there is a limit, as there is to other things, plants, animals, implements; for none of these retain their natural power when they are too large or too small, but they either wholly lose their nature, or are spoiled.”
More on Art
“A poet must never make a statement simply because it sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true." - W. H. Auden"A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness...It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.”
“There are chemists who spend their whole lives trying to find out what's in a lump of sugar. I want to know one thing. What is color?”
“Hence it is from the representation of things spoken by means of posture and gesture that the whole of the art of dance has been elaborated.”
More on Emotion
“It is impossible to believe the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure, classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped over a stick.”
“Life, he realize, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it's in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.”
“You may learn to imitate a birdcall, but do you experience what the nightingale feels for the rose?”