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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lichtenberg ironically questions societal perceptions of beauty in tragedy, implying that mourning heightens aesthetic appeal.
In plain terms
Society often finds grief more striking or beautiful.
What can you take from it?
Beauty and tragedy are often linked.

Where it applies

  • funerals
  • public sympathy
  • media coverage

Putting it to work

  • recognize bias in aesthetics

Questions to consider

  • Is grief beautiful?
  • Who decides what is beautiful?

Another view

It risks trivializing actual grief.

More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

  1. What a blessing it would be if we could open and shut our ears as easily as we open and shut our eyes!

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  2. You must not allow your reading to dominate you but you should dominate your reading.

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  3. We must not seek to abstract from the busts of the great Greeks and Romans rules for the visible form of genius as long as we cannot contrast them with Greek b…

    Permalink to quote #161

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