"Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern."
—Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues (1954)

"Rather, the problem is that of sheer knowledge, of how to accede linguistically to the aesthetic value in the sheer relationality and facticity before one’s eyes."
—J. Hillis Miller, "Introduction" William Carlos Williams. A Collection of Critical Essays, ed., J. Hillis Miller (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966).
"In fact the art of life is first to be alive, secondly to be alive in a satisfactory way, and thirdly to acquire an increase in satisfaction. It is at this point of our argument that we have to recur to the function of Reason, namely the promotion of the art of life. The primary function of Reason is the direction of the attack on the environment."



"Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self."
—Jean-Luc Godard