Yeats wrote of the choice between perfection of the work or of the life.
This much-quoted remark is — like Yeats's poser about perfection of the work versus perfection of the life — fine literary rhetoric but bogus as a dilemma.
In the reign of Harad IV there lived at court a maker of miniatures, who was celebrated for the uncanny perfection of his work.
By Steven Millhauser In the reign of Harad IV there lived at court a maker of miniatures, who was celebrated for the uncanny perfection of his work.
Laufer focused initially on the formal perfection of these works, arms and tools, then explained how they had travelled from animals to humans (citing tortoises as a model for armour), through time and across Asia.
Such questions have become familiar in recent decades as the sexual manners, peccadilloes and political affiliations of artists, philosophers and scientists have been scrutinized -- the perfections of the work seen through the imperfections of the life; the products of genius psychoanalyzed, disenchanted, dismantled.
Given a choice – and not all these artists had one – the decision between perfection of life or work should be no decision at all.
Dickens' short stories are streamlined perfection of his larger works (for when you just don't have time for Nicholas Nickleby) and bring a perfect pick-me-up in less time than a laundry cycle.
Here, lower levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness and higher levels of emotional distancing and, notably, striving for perfection and the subjective significance of work, showed a statistically significant contribution to predict good mental health.
The ideal of the art of bonsai is to create, through dwarfing & shaping, a miniature of a venerable tree on a horizon with the perfection of line of a work of art; the creation of a fine bonsai can be a lifework; many living bonsai are over a century old; bonsai are as precious as jewels.
