"Como explicar esse sentimento sublime e comum que, partindo da sensibilidade física, se eleva à mais alta espiritualidade?" Esta é a pergunta que Graça Aranha busca responder neste ensaio de cunho filosófico, extraído do livro "A estética da vida", onde perpassa as considerações sobre o Amor manifestas, dentre outros, pelos pensadores Heráclito, Platão, Pascal, Goethe e Schopenhauer.
José Pereira da Graça Aranha (June 21, 1868 – January 26, 1931) was a Brazilian writer and diplomat, considered to be a forerunner of the Modernism in Brazil. He was also one of the organizers of the Brazilian Modern Art Week of 1922.
He founded and occupied the 38th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1931. However, he would break all his relations with the Academy in 1924, accusing it of being "old-fashioned".