Motivational Quotes

Art

O, had I but followed the arts!

- Shakespeare, William

Best Quotes about Art

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

It is a weakness that I lead from my heart, and not my head?

Diana, Princess of Wales

Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

Capp, Al

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

Duke Ellington

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

As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft.

Mencken, H. L.

It is either easy or impossible.

Dali, Salvador

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

Weil, Simone

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.

Gogh, Vincent Van

10.

The artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

11.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly I think, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species. It is art which will take the great human themes --love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself --and render them fully human. It may also, though perhaps our imaginations are so mutilated now that we are incapable even of the ambition, introduce a new theme, one as great and as rich as those others --should we call it joy?

Dworkin, Andrea

12.

[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

Al Capp

13.

One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see its separate forms jumbled together.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

14.

It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever -- the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.

Lombardi, Vince

15.

The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.

Berle, Adolf

16.

This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.

Dali, Salvador

17.

I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion --I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more --I could be martyred for my religion --Love is my religion --I could die for that.

Keats, John

18.

I am an artist I am here to live out loud.

Zola, Emile

19.

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

20.

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.

Franklin, Benjamin

21.

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's womb.

Arp, Jean

22.

The True Artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

I suppose no matter what I'm drawing, there will always be some sort of question in my mind about it. A work of art (even cartoon art)is never really finished; it is abandoned.

Brooke McEldowney

24.

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

25.

Many bad artists will tell you that art is life. There's a subtle difference however. You can turn your back on art

26.

But the one thing you should. not do is to suppose that when something is wrong with the arts, it is wrong with the arts ONLY.

Pound, Ezra

27.

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

28.

Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood -- never.

Camus, Albert

29.

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

Blackie, Professor

30.

Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

31.

Art is the only thing that can go on mattering, once it has stopped hurting.

Bowen, Elizabeth

32.

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

Fischer, Ernst

33.

It is not the size of a man but the size of his heart that matters.

Holyfield, Evander

34.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Twain, Mark

35.

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

Anderson, Bill

36.

Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.

Murdoch, Iris

37.

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.

Rilke, Rainer Maria

38.

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

39.

If we keep an open mind, too much is likely to fall into it.

Barney, Natalie Clifford

40.

I know just how frustrating it can be when you're tired and exhausted, but you still want to draw something.

Ward Jenkins

41.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

Keller, Helen

42.

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

Shaw, George Bernard

43.

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

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

44.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

Wilson, Robert

45.

Charity is in the heart of man, and righteousness in the path of men. Pity the man who has lost his path and does not follow it and who has lost his heart and does not know how to recover it. When people's dogs and chicks are lost they go out and look for them and yet the people who have lost their hearts do not go out and look for them. The principle of self-cultivation consists in nothing but trying to look for the lost heart.

Mencius (Mengzi Meng-tse)

46.

The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.

Mailer, Norman

47.

The powerful play goes on -- and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

48.

Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish: I confess, that to my misfortune, it is soft.

Ovid

49.

The heart always sees before than the head can see.

Carlyle, Thomas

50.

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.

Tolstoy, Count Leo