What's the difference between the following two sentences? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

There are likely two things at play here (Although the context of the statements are rather puzzling):

1. Perspective
2. Emphasis

Reproductions of fine art should only be sold to the public if they are of high quality. -

1. If you stress on "only", it would imply that the priority is the quality of the item. i.e. If and only if the product is of high quality, should it be sold to the public.
2. If you stress on "sold", I'm afraid the sentence wouldn't really make sense because, it would mean the following - The product should be sold to the public only if it is of high quality. Else, it should be, I don't know, rented or something.
3. If you stress on "public", again another nonsensical outcome - The product of high quality should be sold to the public and otherwise, it should be sold, may be, internally?

As you can see, the variants are on the basis of emphasis. However, the right point of stress would be option 1 above because, the usage of the word only implies that you're expected to stress it.

Reproductions of fine art should be sold to the public only if they are of high quality. -

1. Now this, seems to me, like the more meaningful arrangement. The emphasis does not look ambiguous here. It says, quite clearly, that we must stress on only and that gives us the same meaning as option 1 in the first case - i.e. the product should be sold to the public provided it is of high quality - priority is clearly quality.

The sentence that makes sense may differ from person to person. Which is why, I mentioned that perspective is also at play here.

Overall, I feel that both sentences are trying to say that only good quality items should be sold to the public. If they're not up to quality, they shouldn't be sold at all.

Hope this helps.

NS