By Eli Siegel

“It calls for more fairness to all reality…. A book that is new—revolutionary—on every one of its 400 pages.” —Smithsonian Magazine

“There is a deep and ‘dialectic’ duality facing every human being, which can be put this way: How is he to be entirely himself, and yet be fair to that world which he does not see as himself? The definition of aesthetics is to be found in a proper appreciation of this duality.” —from chapter 3, “The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict“

“Children are really desperate to see the world as pleasing; and their desperateness is part of a wise hope. The meaning of learning is intensely strong in childhood. The desire for order is intensely strong. The desire to see the world as good and beautiful, is intensely strong. But of course children, like all beings, are changeable by what they meet. They have possibilities which find mighty pervasive opposition. The character of this pervasive opposition it is our job to know.”  —from chapter 9, “The Child“

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