Famous quote by Publilius Syrus

"Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth"

About this Quote

Art reveals itself through two complementary aspects, expression and illusion. Through expression, art becomes a channel for the inner worlds of its creators, a vessel for raw feeling, concept, and personality. Expression is the authenticity of art, its connection to the truth of human experience. Yet simultaneously, art thrives on illusion. Artists craft appearances, create worlds, and manipulate perception. Illusion is art’s ability to suggest realities that do not exist or transform the mundane into the magical. These two faces, honest self-revelation and creative deception, intertwine, defining the very nature of art.

Similarly, science carries its own twin aspects. The "reality of error" in science speaks to its empirical, investigative nature. No matter how precise or noble in intention, science is subject to error, mistake, and revision. Hypotheses are disproved, observations misinterpreted, experiments yield unexpected results. This capacity for error does not diminish science, but rather constitutes its integrity; understanding is refined precisely through the recognition and correction of mistakes.

The "phantom of truth" reflects the elusive, sometimes illusory quest for absolute certainty within scientific inquiry. Each new discovery in science, hailed as truth, risks being a phantom, subject to dissolution as knowledge advances. The truths of science, like the illusions in art, can captivate, inspire, and steer human experience, even as they remain provisional and incomplete.

Syrus draws a profound parallel: both art and science are double-edged. Art dances between truthful expression and masterful illusion, while science wades through fallible reality toward fleeting, sometimes deceptive glimpses of truth. Both domains ultimately reflect the complexity of the human search for understanding, desirous of authenticity, yet forever confronted by the limits of perception and knowledge. Through recognizing their dual faces, deeper appreciation and humility emerge in both the creation and interpretation of art and science.

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Publilius Syrus This quote is written / told by Publilius Syrus between 85 BC and 20 AC. He was a famous Poet from Syria. The author also have 59 other quotes.
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