It is permissible to observe a difference between one’s general conclusions and one’s private predilections. What I see and infer makes me reconciled to sing a Requiem for high art, convinced as I am that the grand Renaissance conception of high art is no longer alive. But the Requiem I want to hear from my own pleasure at home and with friends is the Requiem of Mozart or the Requiem of Berlioz, in whom that conception was still alive and potent. There is no contradiction and my kind attention to myself will not delay the advent of the new man. —Barzun, The Use and Abuse of Art