The best the artist can hope for is to persuade those who have eyes to see for themselves.
 George Sand, The Devil's Pool (1846). copy citation

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Author George Sand
Source The Devil's Pool
Topic hope eyes
Date 1846
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Jane Minot Sedgwick and Ellery Sedgwick
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Devils_Pool_(1895)

Context

“If I am asked what I meant to do, I shall answer that I meant to write a very touching and very simple story, and that I have not succeeded to my satisfaction. I have indeed seen and felt the beauty of simplicity, but seeing and describing are not the same thing. The best the artist can hope for is to persuade those who have eyes to see for themselves. Look at what is simple, my kind reader; look at the sky, the fields, the trees, and at what is good and true in the peasants; you will catch a glimpse of them in my book, but you will see them much better in nature.” source