Motivational Quotes

Art

Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.

- Ambrose Bierce

Best Quotes about Art

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul. The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of Artist.

Poe, Edgar Allan

Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live with; they are too clever, too assertive, too intellectual. Their meaning is too obvious, and their method too clearly defined. One

Wilde, Oscar

Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

Latimer, Bishop Hugh

It is all very well, when the pen flows, but then there are the dark days when imagination deserts one, and it is an effort to put anything down on paper. That little you have achieved stares at you at the end of the day, and you know the next morning you will have to scrape it down and start again.

Elizabeth Aston

The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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.

Wilde, Oscar

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature.

Rand, Ayn

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

Warhol, Andy

Art imitates Nature in this; not to dare is to dwindle.

Updike, John

10.

Thou art my glory and the exultation of y heart: thou art my hope and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Kempis, Thomas

11.

Art is a form of catharsis.

Parker, Dorothy

12.

I shut my eyes in order to see.

Paul Gauguin

13.

The difference between a man who faces death for the sake of an idea and an imitator who goes in search of martyrdom is that whilst the former expresses his idea most fully in death it is the strange feeling of bitterness which comes from failure that the latter really enjoys; the former rejoices in his victory, the latter in his suffering.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

14.

Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

15.

Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised.

Thurber, James

16.

In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought.

Kronenberger, Louis

17.

I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark would burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

London, Jack

18.

We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.

John F. Kennedy

19.

I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.

Ben Shahn

20.

What better way to prove that you understand a subject than to make money out of it?

Rosenberg, Harold

21.

The heart that truly loves never forgets.

Proverb

22.

Not even the visionary or mystical experience ever lasts very long. It is for art to capture that experience, to offer it to, in the case of literature, its readers; to be, for a secular, materialist culture, some sort of replacement for what the love of god offers in the world of faith.

Rushdie, Salman

23.

Art is skill, that is the first meaning of the word.

Gill, Eric

24.

In our own hearts, we mold the whole world's hereafters; and in our own hearts we fashion our own gods.

Melville, Herman

25.

Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

Cather, Willa

26.

Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go.

Driscoll, Louise

27.

A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.

Baudelaire, Charles

28.

The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.

Connolly, Cyril

29.

Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.

Erasmus, Desiderius

30.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

Baldwin, James

31.

Two things are bad for the heart -- running up stairs and running down people.

Baruch, Bernard M.

32.

Those who write for lucre or fame are grosser than the cartel robbers, for they steal the genius of the people, which is its will to resist evil.

Dahlberg, Edward

33.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

34.

If your heart were sincere and upright, every creature would be unto you a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine.

Kempis, Thomas

35.

There is in every human heart Some not completely barren part, Where seeds of truth and love might grow, And flowers of generous virtue flow; To plant, to watch, to water there, This be our duty, be our care.

Bowring, Sir John

36.

The notion that the public accepts or rejects anything in modern art is merely romantic fiction. The game is completed and the trophies distributed long before the public knows what has happened.

Wolfe, Thomas

37.

I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.

Federico Fellini

38.

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?

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

39.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

John Singer Sargent

40.

Each work of art excludes the world, concentrates attention on itself. For the time it is the only thing worth doing --to do just that; be it a sonnet, a statue, a landscape, an outline head of Caesar, or an oration. Presently we return to the sight of another that globes itself into a whole as did the first, for example, a beautiful garden; and nothing seems worth doing in life but laying out a garden.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century.

Mcluhan, Marshall

42.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

Blackie, Professor

43.

The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences.

Beecher, Henry Ward

44.

Where are you searching for me, friend? Look! Here am I right within you. Not in temple, nor in mosque, not in Kaaba nor Kailas, but here right within you am I.

Kabir

45.

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.

Piet Mondrian

46.

Use your head and your heart, its not everything but its a start.

47.

If the wolf had ever come to our back door, he'd have had to bring a picnic lunch.

Anderson, Bill

48.

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.

Mcluhan, Marshall