Quotes from balfour arthur james vii

The greatest works which the world has seen have not been dedicated to an unknown posterity, but have been produced to satisfy the daily needs of their age, and have, therefore, of necessity conformed to the tastes, and usually to the fashion and the prejudices, of the period which gave them birth.

Arguments may be refuted, but who, it has been asked, can answer a sneer?

Though no one can, I think, pretend that science does not concern itself, and properly concern itself, with facts which are not to all appearance illustrations of law, it is undoubtedly true that for those who desire to extract the greatest pleasure from science, a knowledge, however elementary, of the leading principles of investigation and the larger laws of nature, is the acquisition most to be desired.

Fashions have changed; tastes have altered. In music, not less than in poetry and painting, each generation desires to have, and insists on having, that which best suits its moods--which most effectually appeals to the special quality of its emotions: and this universal principle of change ... makes it necessary that the artistic productions of every age, be they better or be they worse, shall at least be different from those of the preceding one.