platitude

Beauty, I suppose, opens the heart, extends the consciousness. It is a platitude, of course.

The synthesis which he helped to effect was so successful that this aspect of his work escaped notice in the last century: all that Britomart stands for was platitude to our fathers. It is platitude no longer.

The former figures the typical prairie landscape-poet who who stops at the correction line (which itself literally denies the platitude of flatness) to notice the ever-present wind.

seemly platitude, flat-footed ordinariness, and well-enacted upper working class respectability cancel out any turpitude, exhilarating tension or satanic glamour a casino might be expected to have.