My weakness has always been to prefer the large intention of an unskillful artist to the trivial intention of an accomplished one: in other words, I am more interested in the high ideas of a feeble executant than in the high execution of a feeble thinker.

Hardy contrasts “intention” (the scale and seriousness of an artist’s imaginative aim) with “execution” (technical finish). He admits a bias toward works that reach for large, difficult meanings—even if clumsily realized—over polished works whose underlying ideas are small or conventional. The remark reflects a Romantic-leaning valuation of vision, moral/intellectual ambition, and imaginative reach above mere craftsmanship. It also implies a hierarchy of artistic failure: technical failure can be redeemed by depth of thought, whereas conceptual thinness cannot be rescued by virtuosity. In criticism, it amounts to preferring the risk of greatness to the safety of refinement.