It is not easy to dismiss (as mere sentiment) the feeling …

It is not easy to dismiss (as mere sentiment) the feeling that these lives are better than ours-not easier, but better. Their taste is more sure than ours, their style more confident, their passions more intense and more pure. Even the outgrown shoes of their children are more beautiful than the shoes in our attics. Or, perhaps it is only the simple, eloquent perfection of Liebling’s photographs that makes it seem so.