Taste and morality (Epstein)
November 28th, 2007 | Published in Morality, Quotes, Religion, Art and Design
One can have the most exquisite taste and yet … be the dreariest of creeps. And of course one can have no taste at all and be wondrously good-hearted. The snob’s error is to put good taste before a good heart – to put good taste before almost everything else. Clearly a fine thing to have, good taste can lend harmony, elegance, and graciousness to one’s life. Yet to pride oneself on one’s good taste is not only the beginning of snobbery; it is also unseemly and, in and of itself, a piece of certifiably bad taste.
–Joseph Epstein, Snobbery: The American Version (2002), p. 81