Quotes
Quotes about Art
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
A man's style in any art should be like his dress--it should attract as little attention as possible.
Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.
Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.
It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.
When nations grow old, the arts grow cold and commerce settles on every tree.
Earth laughs in flowers.
The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
The perfection of art is to conceal art.
There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes wellâhe has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.
At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notesâah, that is where the art resides.
