Famous quotes

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

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina Nederlands

Art

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“How can this cosmic religious experience be communicated from man to man, if it cannot lead to a definite conception of God or to a theology? It seems to me that the most important function of art and of science is to arouse and keep alive this feeling in those who are receptive.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art's purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.”
John Cage (1912–1992) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1982, quoted in John Cage Visual Art: To Sober and Quiet the Mind,
“In science men have discovered an activity of the very highest value in which they are no longer, as in art, dependent for progress upon the appearance of continually greater genius, for in science the successors stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors; where one man of supreme genius has invented a method, a thousand lesser men can apply it.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for co-operation with oneself.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In art [the Chinese] aim at being exquisite, and in life at being reasonable.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XI: Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted
“Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance. She is a veil, rather than a mirror.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intentions (1891)
“All art is immoral.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intentions (1891)
“Psychology is in its infancy, as a science. I hope in the interests of Art, it will always remain so.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscar Wilde (1897), | Hart-Davis, ed., Letters of Wilde, p. 173
“The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Diplomacy, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech given at the Royal Academy of Art in 1953; quoted in Time magazine (11 May 1954).
“The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a battle, as in a siege, the art consists in concentrating very heavy fire on a particular point. The line of battle once established, the one who has the ability to concentrate an unlooked for mass of artillery suddenly and unexpectedly on one of these points is sure to carry the day.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of war consists in being always able, even with an inferior army, to have stronger forces than the enemy at the point of attack or the point which is attacked.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps woman's art is of woman's life a thing apart, 'tis man's whole existence; just as love is said to be the reverse — though it isn't.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Riches and Art are spurious receipts for the production of Happiness and Beauty.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Consistency is the enemy of enterprise, just as symmetry is the enemy of art.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy (1991) by Michael Holroyd
“Every art, and every system, and in like manner every action and purpose aims, it is thought, at some good; for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the good is, ‘that at which all things aim.’ (Bk I, Ch I)”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be, and similarly everything that depends on art or any rational cause, and especially if it depends on the best of all causes. To entrust to chance what is greatest and most noble would be a very defective arrangement.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book I, 1099b.22: Quoted in Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (2005), 21:8.
“Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What Art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern: the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men the useful has succeeded to the beautiful.. There are great truths to tell, if we had either the courage to announce them or the temper to receive them.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You know who critics are?— the men who have failed in literature and art.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1811 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 35. Compare: "Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics", Samuel …
Also quoted by: Benjamin Disraeli (earl Beaconsfield)
“Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And when his hours are numbered, and the world Is all his own, retiring, as he were not, Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work, The frolic architecture of the snow.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is a jealous mistress.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the vaunted works of Art The master stroke is Nature's part.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now I think, speaking roughly, by leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Federal Career Service: A Look Ahead (1954)
“To string incongruities and absurdities together in a wandering and sometimes purposeless way, and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities, is the basis of the American art, if my position is correct.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When Adam ate the apple in the Garden and learned how to multiply and replenish, the other animals learned the Art, too, by watching Adam. It was cunning of them, it was neat; for they got all that was worth having out of the apple without tasting it and afflicting themselves with the disastrous Moral Sense, the parent of all the immoralities.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a great art to saunter.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: April 26, 1841
“Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 32
“We hear the Secretary of State boasting of his brinkmanship — the art of bringing us to the edge of the abyss.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) first seen 1956 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Referring to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, in a speech in Hartford, Connecticut (25 February 1956)
“The art of government has grown from its seeds in the tiny city-states of Greece to become the political mode of half the world. So let us dream of a world in which all states, great and small, work together for the peaceful flowering of the republic of man.”
Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Seeds of Peace : A Catalogue of Quotations (1986) by Jeanne Larson and Madge Micheels, p. 265
“Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press conference, June 30 1955. Quoted in "Le Général de Gaulle et la construction de l'Europe" (1967), pg 33.
“It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the world were clear, art would not exist.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art, at least, teaches us that man cannot be explained by history alone and that he also finds a reason for his existence in the order of nature.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.”
Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People understand the meaning of eating lies in the nourishment of the body only when they cease to consider that the object of that activity is pleasure. ...People understand the meaning of art only when they cease to consider that the aim of that activity is beauty, i.e., pleasure.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source