Full Idea
The ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time.
Gist of Idea
We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients
Source
Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.3)
Book Reference
Tolstoy,Leo: 'What is Art? and Essays on Art', ed/tr. Maude,A [OUP 1975], p.91
A Reaction
This is written at around the time of the Aesthetic Movement, but Tolstoy's own novels are intensely moral. This separation makes abstract painting possible.