Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as the ordinary people try to do, but to fulfil it in its true potential—the imagination.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) English Novelist, Poet, Travel Writer
Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can’t eat it.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.
—Theodor W. Adorno (1903–69) German Philosopher, Composer
Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman.
—Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) Italian-born French Poet, Playwright
This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter
Contrary to popular belief an artist is never ahead of his time, but most people are far behind theirs.
—Edgard Varese (1883–1965) French-American Composer
The more a man cultivates the arts the less he fornicates. A more and more apparent cleavage occurs between the spirit and the brute.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?
—Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Composer, Musician
Art at its most significant is a distant early warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
Art is the most passionate orgy within man’s grasp.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Often while reading a book one feels that the author would have preferred to paint rather than write; one can sense the pleasure he derives from describing a landscape or a person, as if he were painting what he is saying, because deep in his heart he would have preferred to use brushes and colors.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
Making social comment is an artificial place for an artist to start from. If an artist is touched by some social condition, what the artist creates will reflect that, but you can’t force it.
—Bella Lewitzky (1916–2004) American Dancer, Choreographer
Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.
—Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American Actress, Author
A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian Dissident Novelist
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
—Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French Painter, Sculptor, Lithographer
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
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
Every artist writes his own autobiography.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
Bad artists always admire each other’s work. They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. But a truly great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, or beauty fashioned, under any conditions other than those he has selected.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Art is the signature of civilizations.
—Beverly Sills (1929–2007) American Singer, Musician
Art is science made clear.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
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