“ Destructiveness is a native element of human nature, however repressed by society ”
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (1854). copy citation
| Author | Harriet Beecher Stowe |
|---|---|
| Source | Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands |
| Topic | society human nature |
| Date | 1854 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6931/pg6931-images.html |
Context
“No nation has so perfectly the qualifications to care for, keep, and to show to best advantage a gallery of art as the French.
During the heat of the outburst that expelled Louis Philippe from the throne, the Louvre was in some danger of destruction. Destructiveness is a native element of human nature, however repressed by society; and hence every great revolutionary movement always brings to the surface some who are for indiscriminate demolition. Moreover there is a strong tendency in the popular mind, where art and beauty have for many years been monopolized as the prerogative of a haughty aristocracy, to identify art and beauty with oppression;”
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