But the mass of men have neither time nor aptitude for the invention of invisible or abstract beauty.
 G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910). copy citation

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Author G. K. Chesterton
Source What's Wrong with the World
Topic aptitude beauty
Date 1910
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1717/1717-h/1717-h.htm

Context

“But hacking a sonnet out of a rock would be a laborious business, and making a hero out of an envelope is almost out of the sphere of practical politics. This fruitful strife with limitations, when it concerns some airy entertainment of an educated class, goes by the name of Art. But the mass of men have neither time nor aptitude for the invention of invisible or abstract beauty. For the mass of men the idea of artistic creation can only be expressed by an idea unpopular in present discussions—the idea of property. The average man cannot cut clay into the shape of a man; but he can cut earth into the shape of a garden;” source