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Art

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“Thou God art spirit, and the external world is thy name. Thou art treasure, and the totality of the uni-verse is thy talisman.”
Attar of Nishapur (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? O sweet content! Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex'd? O punishment!”
Thomas Dekker (writer) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What has art to do with those things [Revolution, socialism]? Art will never come except from some little disregarded corner where some isolated man is studying the mysteries of nature, fully assured that the answer which he ﬁnds and which is good for him is good also for humanity, whatever may be the number of succeeding generations.”
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) said by 1867 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted by Romain Rolland in his book Millet, c. 1900; transl. Miss Clementina Black; published by Duckworth & Co, Londo / E. P. Dutton & Co, New York, 1919, p. 8
“In seeking wisdom thou art wise: in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.”
Simeon ben Azzai (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The skepticism of the art establishment seems to be based on, as much as anything, a kind of big-city prejudice against work so free from urban angst. ~ Lynn Macritchie in Art in America (April 1995)”
Andy Goldsworthy (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is graffiti art or vandalism? That word has a lot of negative connotations and it alienates people, so no, I don't like to use the word 'art' at all.”
Banksy (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“But oh the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone and never must return!”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“E'en copious Dryden wanted or forgot The last and greatest art,--the art to blot.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise. 'T is more by art than force of num'rous strokes.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Scion of chiefs and monarchs, where art thou? Fond hope of many nations, art thou dead? Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low Some less majestic, less beloved head?”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
The Bible (active around 812) bartlett, Public domain source
“Film contains potentialities for the combination of all the arts such as Wagner never dreamt of.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Film Music", The R. C. M. Magazine, February 1944.
“No tears, Celia, now shall win My resolved heart to return; I have search'd thy soul within, And find nought but pride and scorn; I have learned thy arts, and now Can disdain as much as thou.”
Thomas Carew (1594–1640) said by 1640 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou water turn'st to wine, fair friend of life; Thy foe, to cross the sweet arts of Thy reign, Distils from thence the tears of wrath and strife, And so turns wine to water back again.”
Richard Crashaw (1612–1649) said by 1649 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Steps to the Temple, To Our Lord upon the Water Made Wine; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 516.
“Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.”
John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647–1721) said by 1721 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Essay on Poetry (published 1723).
Also quoted by: Sheffield, Duke Of Buckinghamshire
“The 1960s weren’t the 1920s again; they were the Liberal Arts expressed in the negative. The 1970s, despite the hedonism, weren’t the 1920s; they were the Negative out to get all the rewards formerly held by the Positive. The Goat and Adding Machine Ritual is now.”
George W. S. Trow (1943–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a special irony that this disappearance [of Catholic artists visibility despite Catholics constituting one-quarter of the US population] has occurred during a period when celebrating cultural diversity has become an explicit goal across the American arts. Some kinds of diversity are evidently more equal than others.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is the defining difference between passive and active citizens? Curiously, it isn't income, geography, or even education. It depends on whether or not they read for pleasure and participate in the arts. These cultural activities seem to awaken a heightened sense of individual awareness and social responsibility.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement speech, Stanford University (2007-06-17)
“Considering the part played by the sciences in the story of our Western civilization, it is hardly possible to doubt the importance which the history of science will sooner or later acquire both in its own right and as the bridge which has been so long needed in between the Arts and the Sciences.”
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Origins of Modern Science (1957) Introduction
“So I wonder a woman, the Mistress of Hearts, Should ascent to aspire to be Master of Arts; A Ministering Angel in Woman we see, And an Angel need cover no other Degree. —O why should a Woman not get a Degree?”
Charles Neaves (1800–1876) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: O why should a Woman not get a Degree?", published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1869), p. 227.
“[F]inally, and... somewhat belatedly, there is the growing of a left that... has now been energized and is increasingly vocal... in certain quarters of the cultural community, in the arts and the universities, in Hollywood, in the media... where in some versions it also engages in a kind of illiberal... politics.”
Francis Fukuyama (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The theatre is the best way of showing the gap between what is said and what is seen to be done, and that is why, ragged and gap-toothed as it is, it has still a far healthier potential than some poorer, abandoned arts.”
David Hare (dramatist) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Playwright as Historian", The Sunday Times Magazine (26 November 1978.
“Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.”
Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery (1998) by G. Cameron Hurst, G. Cameron Hurst, 3rd, G. Hurst I, p. 4
“Perhaps the best reason to consider the hard sciences is that, well, one study suggests science, engineering, medicine, and dentistry graduates live longer than arts graduates (or law grads). So whatever money you make you can keep a bit longer.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are all in a cage match, mixed martial arts battle royale with agents of intolerance and braying incompetence, the malevolent equals to Imperial stormtroopers, Lex Luther, and Loki. And we could use a superhero right now.”
Tom Hanks (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...we no longer have intellectually satisfying arrangements in our educational system, in our arts, humanities or anything else; instead we have slogans and ideologies. An ideology is a religious or emotional expression; it is not an intellectual expression.”
Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Are there not many Arts which, though speechless, express their meanings with perfect adequacy, with satisfaction to the recipient, and serve at the same time as a medium of communication between soul and soul?”
L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among the arts of expression one is suited to this purpose, another to that. It is hard to express movement in stone or rest in music. It is harder still to express permanence in speech.”
L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Julian was into black magic. Well, okay—he never called it that. But something to do with the dark arts. “Magick” with a K, that Aleister Crowley bullshit. So fucking pretentious. Most of Crowley’s quote-unquote magick was just a way of getting laid—he was a total con man. If you can read his stuff with a straight face, you’re a stronger woman than me.”
Elizabeth Hand (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our aim is to create an island of tranquility in our own country which, amid the joyful hum of arts and crafts, would be welcome to anyone who professes faith in Ruskin and Morris.”
Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration in work programme of Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop, 1903)
“I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means that you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it.”
Robert Sapolsky (born 1957) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (3rd ed., 2004), Preface, p. XII
“Those who are concerned with the arts are often asked questions, not always sympathetic ones, about the use or value of what they are doing. It is probably impossible to answer such questions directly, or at any rate to answer the people who ask them.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the most obvious uses [of literature], I think, is its encouragement of tolerance. In the imagination our own beliefs are also only possibilities, but we can also see the possibilities in the beliefs of others. Bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them as also possibilities.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter how much experience we may gather in life, we can never in life get the dimension of experience that the imagination gives us. Only the arts and sciences can do that, and of these, only literature gives us the whole sweep and range of human imagination as it sees itself.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is a set of analogies to a genuinely human existence, of which the arts are the model. Merely human life is of course a demonic analogy or parody of genuinely human life. (p. 149)”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all the arts poetry is the most intimate and personal.”
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“poetry, which is the voice of the soul's aspirations, has for it, of all the arts, the most natural and immediate appeal.”
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Maybe those inclined towards the arts are so spiritually retarded to a degree that we must go through the whole process of cathartic expression just to discover how we really feel.”
Mark Heard (1951–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first demonstration (Disq. Arith., Arts. 125-145) which is presented by Gauss in a form very repulsive to any but the most laborious students, has been resumed by Lejeune Dirichlet in a memoir in Crelle's Journal... and has been developed by him with that luminous perspicuity by which his mathematical writings are distinguished.”
Henry John Stephen Smith (1826–1883) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Report on the Theory of Numbers (1859) Part I, p. 59.
“I think of physics as the liberal arts of technology. You understand the fundamental aspects of physics, and then you can learn the technology and understand how it relates to current world problems. I'm teaching the elementary physics that is most useful for someone who is trying to live in a technological world, to contribute to that world, and to make correct decisions.”
Richard A. Muller (born 1944) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted by Devi Mathieu, in Physicist Richard Muller helps prepare tomorrow’s leaders for a technological world, The Berkeleyan, 26 February 2003.
“The goals, methods, and strategies of what borders on science is different from the gyration of fashion and the incommensurability of arts and music in different epochs. Because this different process of cumulative science is imperfect, historians and philosophers of science intermittently downplay this difference.”
Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Keeping Whig History Honest", History of Economics Society Bulletin, 10(2), 161-167, 1988.
“If during the last thousand seconds you have received any High-Beyond-protocol packets from "Arbitration Arts," discard them at once. If they have been processed, then the processing site and all locally netted sites must be physically destroyed at once. We realize that this means the destruction of solar systems, but consider the alternative. You are under Transcendent attack.”
Vernor Vinge (1944–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is the most bodliy of arts, the medium of poetry is the column of breath rising from the diaphragm in the individual's chest to be shaped into meaning sounds inside the mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.”
Robert Pinsky (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now the real fruits of human nature – the arts, sciences, great enterprises, lofty conceptions, manly virtues – are due especially to the state of war. […] In a word, we can say that blood is the manure of the plant we call genius.”
Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indifference to the fine arts comes close to barbarism.”
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) said by 1841 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture, Vol. 11 (1976) by Garland Publishing, p. 94; also in The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 28 (1996) by Jane Turner
“I love the play between the conscious and unconscious minds in the creative moment, and for me chess and the martial arts are both about developing a rich working relationship with your intuition.”
Joshua Waitzkin (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet; he has a fine Geneva watch, but cannot tell the hour by the sun.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. It is not enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) said by 1778 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source