naïve

“But it is this naïve man—and philosophers for the greater part of their lives are naïve men—who makes the unrecognized introspective observations with which we are here concerned. It is the naïve man who divides the Real into the Beautiful, the True and the Good.”

“According to the prevailing Danish rationale, Greenlanders were naïve and childlike, in need of protection and incapable of governing themselves.”

“He has his own definite qualities of composition: a naïf grace, a deft handling of forms, and the introduction of variations into landscapes, figures, or the eyes of American sailors. […] In this room, blue as a tunnel with stagnant smoke, naïve girls dance with the directors of musical reviews.”

“The passages are alike because (1) the person who is supposed to be writing is illiterate; and because (2) she or he is naïf and engagingly childish. […] Gertrude Stein may be falsely naïve, but what are two realistic satirists of American types, like Anita Loos and Ring Lardner, doing in such a category?”