Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Art
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“Thou art gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream, And I seek thee in vain by the meadow and stream.”
George Linley (1797–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thou art gone, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“All loved Art in a seemly way With an earnest soul and a capital A.”
James Jeffrey Roche (1847–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The V-a-s-e, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Acting is merely the art of keeping a large number of people from coughing.”
Ralph Richardson (1902–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ralph Richardson, reported in Ashton Applewhite; Tripp Evans, Andrew Frothingham (2003). And I Quote: The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker. Macmillan, p. 283. .
“I was overjoyed when I read Yevtushenko's "Babi Yar"; the poem astounded me. It astounded thousands of people…People knew about Babi Yar before Yevtushenko's poem, but they were silent. And when they read the poem, the silence was broken. Art destroys silence.”
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933–2017) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Solomon Volkov (ed.), Testimony: The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich (New York: Limelight, 2006) pp. 158-9.
“The contemplation of beauty in nature, in art, in literature, in human character, diffuses through our being a soothing and subtle joy, by which the heart's anxious and aching cares are softly smiled away.”
Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing lives in literature but that which has the vitality of creative art; and it would be safe advice to the young to read nothing but what is old.”
Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art must not be concentrated in dead shrines called museums. lt must be spread everywhere – on the streets, in the trams, factories, workshops, and in the workers' homes.”
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Shrine or Factory?" (1918); translation from Mikhail Anikst et al. (eds.) Soviet Commercial Design of the Twenties (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987) p. 15
“Something new has been added, a new art of sound. Am I wrong in calling it music?”
Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Liberation of Sound: An Introduction to Electronic Music (Prentice-Hall edition, 1972)
“Obviously, the intention was not to go back to images traditionally valued as worthy or holy images and shapes, but exactly the opposite; its main purpose had to be, to realise as sacred art anything which so far had been regarded as of little value and pitiful. [quote from 1988]”
Antoni Tàpies (1923–2012) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 38
“Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.”
Neil Simon (1927–2018) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times (March 24, 1985)
“Do you know what good art is? It is saying "ta" to God.”
Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Times Thievish Progress (1970) by John Rothenstein; "ta" is a British form of "thank you.
“The works of art, by being publicly exhibited and offered for sale, are becoming articles of trade, following as such the unreasoning laws of markets and fashion; and public and even private patronage is swayed by their tyrannical influence.”
Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861) said by 1861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Albert, Prince" The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed on 20 November 2008
“The love of art.. ..reconciles us to our lined faces and white hear. [Berthe Morisot was 40 years then]”
Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote in a letter to a friend, c. 1881; as cited in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, with her family and friends, Denish Rouart - newly introduced by Kathleen Adler and Tamer Garb; Camden Press London 1986, p. 117
“Realism was the death of art.”
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Great art should come from the harmony of two lines.”
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers, Boston (1899)
“Art is the most valued thing in the world...it is the expression of the highest form of human energy,the creative power nearest to the divine.The power is within - the question is how to reach it.”
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Arthur Wesley Dow & American Arts & Crafts, Nancy E Green & Jessica Poesch Exhibt Cat. New York (1999)
“Politics is a great art. It succeeds at convincing the people that they have to pay for what has been stolen from them.”
Andrzej Majewski (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paris with its multitude of art directions calls continuously to the deepest penetration and recognition of your inner essence. Only in this way it is possible to create work that refers the time span.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in his letter to H. E. Kramer, 25-10-1926, as quoted in: Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994, p. 44 (English translation: Charlotte Bu…
“My work is independent of my will. My best works are created when driven by an inner strength. This has nothing to do with my will. It is that immediate spontaneity of my intense way of living that makes the difference between my work and a lot of other artists who make art works with their mind.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to H. E. Kramer, 14-11-1927, as quoted in: Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994, p. 46 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)
“I have joined, once and for all, the ranks of the intellectual experimentalists. I can hardly bear the sound of the words "expressionism," "emotionalism," "personality," and such, because they imply the wish to express personal life, and I prefer to have no personal life. Personal art is for me a matter of spiritual indelicacy.”
Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By factitious air, I mean in general any kind of air which is contained any in other bodies in an unelastic state, and is produced from thence by art.”
Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) said by 1810 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where art thou, beam of light? Hunters, from the mossy rock, saw ye the blue-eyed fair?”
James Macpherson (1736–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature.”
James Macpherson (1736–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edn. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910-11) vol. 17, p. 268.
“You listeners, the ones who found me first are, I believe, the future of great art thinkers. Because anyone that's found me now I really think is grabbing on to the ideas that I have, more than anything. It's about the music but it's also about the story. So thank you guys for loving and reading the story and being as into it and as passionate as I am.”
“That’s the most Warholian thing about what I do... I embrace pop culture. The very thing that everybody says is poisonous and ostentatious and shallow, it’s like my chemistry book... and I make what I believe to be art out of it.”
“I don’t consider my own clothing to be outrageous... The truth is that people just don’t have the same references that I do. To me it’s very beautiful and it’s art, and to them it’s outrageous and crazy.”
“The whole point of what I do-the Monster Ball, the music, the performance art aspect of it-I want to create a space for my fans where they can feel free and where they can celebrate because I didn't fit in in high school and I felt like a freak. So I like to create this atmosphere for my fans where they feel like they have a freak in me to hang with and they don't feel alone.”
“My real fans understand what it is I do, but on another level I have fans who just love my music and don’t know I write it and enjoy it shallowly — and that’s OK too. I think art and music should be just as powerful if you drink it shallow as if you drink it deep.”
“I don't want to see Bowie in a tracksuit. He never let anyone see him that way. The outlet for my work is not just the music and the videos, it's every breathing moment of my life. I'm always saying something about art and music and fame. That's why you don't ever catch me in sweatpants.”
“The meaning of culture" is nothing less than the conduct of life itself, fortified, thickened, made more crafty and subtle, by contact with books and with art.”
John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No refining of one's taste in matters of art or literature, no sharpening of one's powers of insight in matters of science or psychology, can ever take the place of one's sensitiveness to the life of the earth. This is the beginning and the end of a person's true education.”
John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You must have heard that last autumn I almost got married, but I am glad I realized in time that it had been an illusion, all those beautiful things. Although I have always lived for art, I am also attracted to the beautiful in life and so I sometimes do things that seem strange for me.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in an undated letter to Alleta de Jongh, Paris, c. Spring 1912; as cited in Mondrian, - The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 243, note 61
“Quote in a letter of 7 March 1917 to H. P. Bremmer; as cited in Mondrian, -The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 91”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A particular thought is not the same as a concentrated, creative thought, which is actually a feeling of inward-looking calm. The former produces a descriptive and morpho-plastic art, the latter a purely plastic manifestation. It is a question of the universal versus the individual. [Mondrian refers to André Gide's 'Dada', in 'Nouvelle Revue Francaise', 1 April 1920]”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may be noted that in Neo-Plastic art the crucial thing is the right angel, that is, the right-angle lines. And not whether the position of the lines is vertical or horizontal.. .So it is possible to make very beautiful things while placing the lines in a diagonal position.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In 'Neo-Plasticism: Home – Street – City', Piet Mondriaan, 'i 10', Jan. 1927
“In his later works Doesburg tried to destroy static expression by diagonal position of his lines. But in this way the feeling of physic equilibrium which is necessary to enjoy a work of art is lost.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in a letter of Mondrian to Sweeney, 24 May 1943; as cited in: - 102 - Two autobiographical texts (24 May 1943)
“Now the only problem is to destroy these lines also through mutual opposition. ..[note under his letter]: I think that the destructive element is too much neglected in art.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in his letter to Sweeney, 24 May 1943; as cited in Mondrian, - The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 240
“That is what we are against [the ancient-Greek ideas about art], because that is the key to the classic and tragic finality from which we must free ourselves.”
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote of Mondrian c. 1944, in 'Mondrian in New York: a Memoir', by Carl Holty; 'Arts', Sept. 1957, p. 11; as cited in 'The Aesthetics of Piet Mondrian, by Arthur Chandler; California State University, San Francisco; MSS…
“We are now committed to an unqualified art, not illustrating outworn myths or contemporary alibis. One must accept total responsibility for what he executes. And the measure of his greatness will be in the depth of his insight and his courage in realizing his own vision.”
Clyfford Still (1904–1980) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Dorothy Miller February 5, 1952; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism Creators and Critics, edited by Clifford Ross, Abrams Publishers New York 1990, p. 193
“Art is nothing but humanized science.”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Deric Regin (1968) Culture and the Crowd. p. 86
“Philosophers and aestheticians may offer elegant and profound definitions of art and beauty, but for the painter they are all summed up in this phrase: To create a harmony”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clint Brown (1998) Artist to Artist, p. 32
“..since then I have found consolation in Blake; 'Without Contraries is no progression', he says in his Proverbs of Hell. And Baudelaire's idea that 'Variety is an essential condition of life' seems to me to be in perfect accord with my aspirations and with my intention, as a Futurist painter, to put life in the place occupied by reasoning in the art of the Cubist period.”
Gino Severini (1883–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Reality? Is it then so certain that Life is made of four Absurdities? Is it not far more certain that life is made up of Four Beauties of Calmness, Joy, Harmony, Rhythm... The truest reality. And what of the expression of all this — Art? Must Pandemonium and Ugliness ever stand for Strength?”
Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) first seen 1906 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Isadora Duncan : Six Movement Designs (1906)
“I believe in the time when we shall be able to create works of art in the Theatre without the use of the written play, without the use of actors.”
Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in On the Art of the Theatre (2009), p. 53.
“I like science and I love gym. Oh, and I like art, but I'm really bad at it. I'm just a terrible drawer. I can't draw a circle. Even with a ruler, I can't draw a straight line.”
Daniel Radcliffe (born 1989) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who has had actual contact with the making of the inventions that built the radio art knows that these inventions have been the product of experiment and work based on physical reasoning, rather than on the mathematicians' calculations and formulae. Precisely the opposite impression is obtained from many of our present day text books and publications.”
Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Electronics (2005) by P. Arun, p. 310
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Misattributed to Chateaubriand on the internet and even some recently published books, this statement actually originated with L. P. Jacks in Education through Recreation (1932)
Also quoted by: François-René de Chateaubriand (misattributed)
“Philosophy resembles poetry in being an art for enforcing meditation, for driving the mind inwards until it sinks into its Object.”
L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Speech is insufficient to utter the last things; and this troubles it not, because the last things may be heard speaking for themselves. At last, after long delay the wondering soul gives form to that which is stirring within it and produces its works art and song and mighty deeds.”
L. P. Jacks (1860–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is something given, not reproduced... the painter paints what he sees with his innermost senses, the expression of his being.. every other impression becomes, for him, an inner expression.”
Herwarth Walden (1878–1941) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Erster Deutscher Herbstsalaon (1913)