"The business of art lies in just this-to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible. Usually it seems to the recipient of a truly artistic impression that he knew the thing before but was unable to express it."

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"I must say what I think...that [the] simple feeling familiar to the plainest man and even to a child, that sense of infection with another's feeling,-compelling us to joy in another's gladness, to sorrow at another's grief, and to mingle souls with another,- which is the very essence of art."

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"A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and all whose minds receive this work of art. In this freeing of our personality from its separation and isolation, in this uniting of it with others, lies the chief characteristic and the great attractive force of art."

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  -Leo Tolstoy, What is Art.

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