"People these days waste a tremendous amount of paper. They waste it because it is of poor quality and is made to be wasted. Or it might be more correctly said that the perception of good paper as a precious commodity has dwindled. But does this careless treatment of paper mean that our lives are any better? ...
"People often judge the level of a civilization by the amount of paper it uses. That, however, is simply a matter of volume, not quality. Quality is how the heart and soul of a civilization should be measured. How can bad paper and high civilization possibly be bedmates?"
"What is the proper way of seeing? In brief, it is to see things as they are. However, very few people possess this purity of sight. That is, such people are not seeing things as they are, but are influenced by preconceptions. 'Knowing' has been added to 'seeing'."
"Under the snow's reflected light creeping into the houses, beneath the dim lamplight, various types of manual work is taken up. This is how time is forgotten; this is how work absorbs the hours and days. If time remains unused, winter becomes a curse."
"Society cannot be proud when a product is available only to a select few...Equating the expensive with the beautiful cannot be a point of pride."
"Whenever a pattern is particularly beautiful, it invariably takes on an aspect of the grotesque, the result of its being a reinforcement and fortification of beauty. It might be called exaggeration that is faithful to the truth. A pattern does not represent an object as it appears in nature; rather it is a vivid representation of something that does not, in fact, exist...Pattern represents the power and force of beauty."
"A pattern is the depiction of the fundamental nature of an object, it is what remains of an object's form after all that is unnecessary had been removed."
Starting this collection of essays by Yanagi about "folk art".
Where Wilde declared that all art is essentially useless, Yanagi states that folk art is essentially utilitarian, that if it does not first serve its purpose, it is degraded and non-moral. I don't know enough about Morris's arts and crafts movement in Britain to categorically state that the two are singing from the same hymn sheet, but I think they may, at least, share a verse or two.
"In order to be called 'mingei' [folk art] an object must be wholesomely and honestly made for practical use... devoted to healthy utilitarian purposes. It is, in fact, our most trustworthy and reliable companion throughout our daily lives... easy to use and ready at hand...[it] provides a sense of ease and comfort, and the more we use it, the more intimately it becomes a part of our lives." ?
The Beauty of Everyday Things | 
