Art distills sensations and embodies it with enhanced meaning.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would have thus been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
A good metaphor is something even the police should keep an eye on.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Now nature is not at variance with art, nor art with nature; they being both the servants of his providence. Art is the perfection of nature. Were the world now as it was the sixth day, there were yet a chaos. Nature hath made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for nature is the art of God.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of revolutionary; and it is they alone who are masters.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
Artists are nearest God. Into their souls he breathes his life, and from their hands it comes in fair, articulate forms to bless the world.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than admiration of the beautiful. — All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste, without respect to the object. — They purify the thoughts, as tragedy purifies the passions. — Their accidental effects are not worth consideration; for there are souls to whom even a vestal is not holy.
—August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845) German Poet, Literary Critic, Scholar
The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
The object of art is to give life a shape.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
A writer needs three things: experience, observation, and imagination—any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
It is better to create than to be learned; creating is the true essence of life.
—Barthold G. Niebuhr (1776–1831) Danish-German Statesman, Banker, Historian
Lying, a telling of beautiful untrue things, this is the proper aim of art.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
If a patron buys from an artist who needs money (needs money to buy tools, time, food), the patron then makes himself equal to the artist; he is building art into the world; he creates.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public.
—Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972) French Actor, Singer
Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?
—Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South African Novelist, Short-Story Writer
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that cannot be explained.
—Georges Braque (1882–1963) French Painter, Artist, Sculptor
Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
—Danny Kaye (1913–87) American Actor, Singer, Comedian
The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Art, as far as it has the ability, follows nature, as a pupil imitates his master, so that art must be, as it were, a descendant of God.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Artists who have won fame are often embarrassed by it; thus their first works are often their best.
—Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Composer, Musician
One thing that makes art different from life is that in art things have a shape… it allows us to fix our emotions on events at the moment they occur, it permits a union of heart and mind and tongue and tear.
—Marilyn French (1929–2009) American Feminist Author
Art is the proper task of life.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.
—Alberto Giacometti (1901–66) Swiss Sculptor, Painter
Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
—Georges Braque (1882–1963) French Painter, Artist, Sculptor
An artist conscientiously moves in a direction which for some good reason he takes, putting one work in front of the other with the hope he’ll arrive before death overtakes him.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time. It’s just that the others are behind the time.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
Notice I did not say what people can do–what we can do is merely a consequence of what we can be.
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality
Art is a reality, not a definition; inasmuch as it approaches a reality, it approaches perfection, and inasmuch as it approaches a mere definition, it is imperfect and untrue.
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846) English Painter, Writer
Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to the feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
As insanity in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom, so is schizophrenia the beginning of all art, all fantasy.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in the case of poetry, it’s the exact opposite!
—Paul Dirac (1902–84) English Theoretical Physicist
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
—Diane Arbus (1923–71) American Photographer
An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.
—Jean-luc Godard (b.1930) French-born Swiss Film Director, Film Critic
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) Italian-born French Poet, Playwright
Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
—Scott Adams (b.1957) American Cartoonist
A hint – don’t paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! study nature then brood on it and treasure the creation which will result, which is the only way to ascend towards God – to create like our Divine Master.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
All art is but imitation of nature.
—Seneca the Elder (Marcus Annaeus Seneca) (c.55 BCE–c.40 CE) Roman Rhetorician
It is not in life, but in art that self-fulfillment is to be found.
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930) American Literary Critic, Poet
For art is order, but it is born out of the chaos of life.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Art for art’s sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden… it is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Never judge a work of art by its defects.
—Washington Allston (1779–1843) American Poet, Painter
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
What is art but life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man’s mind.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.
—Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish Film and Stage Director
Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
All great art … creates in the beholder not self-satisfaction but wonder and awe. Its great liberation is to lift us out of ourselves.
—Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American Journalist, Radio Personality
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter … a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.
—Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French Painter, Sculptor, Lithographer
The artist has never been a dictator, since he understands better than anybody else the variations in human personality.
—Heywood Broun (1888–1939) American Journalist
Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature’s monotony. The sublime idea men have of the universe would collapse with dizzying speed. The order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish. Everything would break up in chaos. There would be no seasons, no civilization, no thought, no humanity; even life would give way, and the impotent void would reign everywhere.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) Italian-born French Poet, Playwright
An artist is somebody who produces things that people don’t need to have.
—Andy Warhol (1928–87) American Painter, Printmaker, Film Personality
An artist is a man of action, whether he creates a personality, invents an expedient, or finds the issue of a complicated situation.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
Criticism of others is futile and if you indulge in it often you should be warned that it can be fatal to your career.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Great art picks up where nature ends.
—Marc Chagall (1889–1985) Russian-born French Painter, Graphic Artist
Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
There is only one art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Works of art, in my opinion, are the only objects in the material universe to possess internal order, and that is why, though I don’t believe that only art matters, I do believe in Art for Art’s sake.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn’t make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
The jargon of these sculptors is beyond me. I do not know precisely why I admire a green granite female, apparently pregnant monster with one eye going around a square corner.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The perfection of art is to conceal art.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.
—William Morris (1834–96) British Designer, Craftsman, Poet, Writer
Each living art object, taken out of its native habitat so we can conveniently gaze at it, is like an animal in a zoo. Something about it has died in the removal.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that’s hard for a puritan to understand.
—Gunter Grass (1927–2015) German Novelist, Poet
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.
—Angela Davis (b.1944) American Political Activist, Academic
The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. It is the currency of human exchanges, which enables the sharing of states of the soul and conscience, and the discovery of new fields of experience.
—Yehudi Menuhin (1916–99) American-born British Violinist, Conductor
I think it is owing to the good sense of the English that they have not painted better.
—William Hogarth (1697–1764) English Painter, Engraver
In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought.
—Louis Kronenberger (1904–80) American Drama, Literary Critic
Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
Painting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed; contemplating it, everyone can create a story at the will of his imagination and.. with a single glance.. have his soul invaded by the most profound recollections; no effort of memory, everything is summed up in one instant. A complete art which sums up all the others and completes them.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
When I am finishing a picture I hold some God-made object up to it—a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand—as a kind of final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there’s a clash between the two, it is bad art.
—Marc Chagall (1889–1985) Russian-born French Painter, Graphic Artist
Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
In every photographer there is something of a stroller.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
Buy Old Masters. They fetch a much better price than old mistresses.
—Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964) Canadian-born British Politician, Journalist
The highest triumph of art, is the truest presentation of nature.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. Well, art is art, isnt it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh… Now you tell me what you know.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization.
—Lincoln Steffens (1846–1936) American Journalist, Academic, Political Philosopher