The Saunterer

James Russell Lowell on creativity and failure

    To James Russell Lowell, creators must not be afraid to fail:

You must have first your chaos of jostling elements and forces, the fermentation of the yet uncrystallized idea; then the brooding of the creative imagination; and then the birth of your star or comet or, unhappily too often, of your meteor, which falls to earth a shapeless jelly. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 193.)

    For brief biography of James Russell Lowell, click here.

Ivar Ekeland on global warming

    It is imperative to act immediately on global warming, rather than wait for more information, believes Ivar Ekeland:

Even if we stopped producing any more carbon dioxide today, hundreds of years would elapse before its atmospheric concentration returned to its preindustrial level of 280 ppm. It is right now at 370 ppm, and it is expected to reach 745 ppm in 2100. By this time average temperatures will be higher than they are today, the estimated range being 37 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to some melting of the polar ice caps, so that the sea level will increase by an estimated half a foot to three feet, which is enough to wipe out some islands and countries like Bangladesh. There is always the hope that such dire predictions might turn out to be wrong, and this is an argument often put forward not to face the problem, but it should be kept in mind that there are two ways to be wrong: one can error on the good side as easily as on the bad side. In other words, the actual scenarios may turn out to be worse than expected (in fact, this seems to be happening), so that uncertainty actually strengthens the argument for doing something right now. (Quoted from The Best of All Possible Worlds, by Ivar Ekeland, The University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 146.)

    For Ivar Ekeland’s home page, click here.

Georges Braque on the value of limited means to creating

    Ever wonder why art failed to improve when computers extended the means of artists? Georges Braque knew why:

Limitation of means determines style, engenders new form, and gives impulse to creation. Limited means often constitute the charm and force of primitive painting. Extension, on the contrary, leads the arts to decadence. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 286.)

    For brief biography of Georges Braque, click here.

Galileo on learning how to reason

    The best way of learning to reason, thought Galileo, is to study geometry:

Truly I begin to understand that although logic is an excellent instrument to govern our reasoning, it does not compare with the sharpness of geometry in awakening the mind to discovery. (Quoted from Dialogs Concerning Two New Sciences, by Galileo Galilei.)

        For brief biography of Galileo Galilei, click here.

Victor Weisskopf on the use of the arts

    The arts solve the problem that we cannot live constantly in one realm. Victor Weisskopf:

I have often wondered why music was such an essential part of my life. . . . I cannot live constantly in the scientific realm. I need the change to other approaches offered by music and the other arts. There is a saying, “In the morning I turn from mystery to reality, in the evening I return from reality to mystery.” We need such differing approaches - Niels Bohr’s complementarity - as we sometimes need to turn to the other side of bed in order to get comfortable.

    Another needed complementarity is habitually experiencing wild nature. For a brief biography of Victor Weisskopf, click here.

C. E. Montague on how to be a successful spectator of nature or art

    In valuing nature or art, trust to your own native sense wrote Charles E. Montague:

The assumption is commonly made, or implied, that in presence of some reputedly beautiful thing there is one right way of feeling, or thinking, and that there are many wrong ways. The opposite is the truth. No wrong way exists, so long as it is a vehement personal way of somebody’s own. Any such human experience is the ultimate unit of critical truth; you cannot get higher authority than that sincere assurance for any valuation of any visible thing. The only way you can fail, as a spectator of nature or art, is to say things, and try to believe them, just because some aesthetic pundit or critical mandarin has said them before. That way humbug lies, and boredom too. (Quoted from The Right Place: A Book of Pleasures, by C. E. Montague, Chatto and Windus, London, 1924, p. 222.)

    For a brief biography of C. E. Montague, click here.

Georgia O’Keeffe on the certainty of love

    The certainty of love given by a pet has a quality rarely matched by the certainty of love given by a human. Georgia O’Keeffe writes:

My Kitten Cat is lovelier than ever - Maybe I love her too much - Maybe it is something in me that I have to spend on something alive that is beautiful to me. I am quite amused with my love - For her - and I like her being so sure that I like her - her certainty is one of the nicest things about her. (Quoted from Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life, by Roxana Robinson, New York: Harper & Row, 1989, p. 397.)

    For a brief biography of Georgia O’Keeffe, click here.

Bernard Berenson on educating children to value and appreciate beauty

    Bernard Berenson’s words need to be understood:

From an early age children should be taught to appreciate and value the beauty of things in themselves, and not only as painted or otherwise reproduced. . . . Sunset, sunrise, sky effects, all natural effects, the beauty of buildings, houses, street scenes, the charm of everyday objects in their places, the loveliness of human beings, not only of the young but of all ages, and of all animals of course, etc. That sort of education might lead people to value, appreciate, enjoy what costs them nothing, and at the same time turn them into potential super-painters. Then make them appreciate all the beauties, man-made, that cost them nothing or next to nothing, like the works of art in public museums. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 273.)

    For a brief biography of Bernard Berenson, click here.

Thomas Starr King on the need for majestic landscapes for the heart

    Most of us lack an inner sublime. That’s a shame, lectured Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King in the 1860s:

So many of us there are who have no majestic landscapes for the heart - no grandeurs in the inner life. We live on the flats. . . . We look up to no heights whence shadow falls and streams flow singing. . . . We have no sacred and cleansing fears. We have no consciousness of Divine, All-enfolding Love. We may make an outward visit to the Sierras, but there are no Yosemites in the soul. (Quoted from “Selections from a Lecture-Sermon after Visiting Yosemite Valley,” in Oscar J. Shuck, The California Scrapbook, San Francisco: H. H. Bancroft, 1869.)

    For a brief biography of Thomas Starr King, click here.

John Muir knew the difference between the human race and people

    John Muir naturalists are those with John Muir’s beliefs, as extracted from his collected writings and applied to today. I have spoken for them in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p.154:

John Muir naturalists place the human race above people. It is a club, we are its temporary members. One short-sighted lot of us, leaving fate to market forces and sales pressure, chances eroding nature’s biological and spiritual integrity, past repair. If the word responsibility has any meaning, each generation must be on vigilant guard duty, fighting to keep the remaining wild places safe on its watch.

    For a brief biography of John Muir, click here.