Art for art's sake Art for art's sake "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan from the early 19th century, "l'art pour l'art", and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic", from the Greek "autoteles", "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings. The term is sometimes used commercially. A Latin version of this phrase ("ARS GRATIA ARTIS") is used as a motto by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appears
Gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit grace. The other kind of grace is gratia gratis data, commonly translated as gratuitous grace. The phrase is not altogether happy; after all, the first kind of grace is also gratuitously, in the sense of freely, given by God. This gratuitous grace, in the technical sense, is given bot for the sanctification of the recipient, but to allow the recipient to help others to God(I-II. III, 1c). Gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit Gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit is translated as 'Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it', or 'grace does not destroy nature but fulfills it'. This