..[F]ireworks had for her a direct and magical appeal. Their attraction was more complex than that of any other form of art. They had pattern and sequence, colour and sound, brilliance and mobility; they had suspense, surprise, and a faint hint of danger; above all, they had the supreme quality of transience, which puts the keenest edge on beauty and makes it touch some spring in the heart which more enduring excellences cannot reach.Jan Struther
About This Quote
This quote is one of the most famous quotes by the famous English novelist Virginia Woolf. The quote was written in response to an article by Clive Bell. Bell said that “only music has the same kind of direct appeal” as the arts, calling painting “the most lasting art.” Woolf disagreed, arguing that “a poem or a picture lasts for ever. What last longer than poetry or pictures? A poem, for instance, takes up all one’s attention while it lasts; but when it is over it leaves a shiver behind it which cannot be described.”
Source: Mrs. Miniver
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