Politics, Art, Religion : Page 278

In matters of art and literature, a good conversationalist will know something about the best books, paintings, music, sculpture, and architecture, and he will listen eagerly to someone who knows more. What is even more important than encyclopedic knowledge about these things is good taste and a good critical sense. He ought to be a factor in helping people distinguish good art from bad, the beautiful from the "phoney," the wholesome from the harmful. But because taste in art is such a sensitive index of people's total cultural level, he must be particularly tactful in stating his judgments. If one person calls Edgar Guest the greatest modern poet, and another suggests that anyone who likes Guest must have primitive tastes, he himself violates all canons of good taste. The saying, De gustibus non est disputandum, "One cannot dispute matters of taste," really means that taste is so revealing and personal a matter that people are too sensitive about it to have it questioned. One must therefore be particularly careful to keep all discussion of such matters on an impersonal level.