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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatinaNederlands
Art
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed through words, so to convey this so that others may experience the same feeling — this is the activity of art.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one consciously, by means of certain external symbols, conveys to others the feelings one has experienced, whereby people so infected by these feelings, also experience them.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The appreciation of the merits of art (of the emotions it conveys) depends upon an understanding of the meaning of life, what is seen as good and evil. Good and evil are defined by religions.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art stopped short at the cultivated court of the Empress Josephine.”
W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) said by 1911 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“An art thief is a man who takes pictures.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mankind has failed miserably in its effort to devise a rational system of government. [...] The art of government is the exclusive possession of quacks and frauds. It has been so since the earliest days, and it will probably remain so until the end of time.”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As for younger writers, Mencken wrote a friend in 1935, “all…seem to be headed toward the left….The left-wing movement…is bound to be transient, but while it lasts it has pretty well killed intelligent criticism in this country. Books are judged not by their worth as works of art, but by their political content…”
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O little booke, thou art so unconning, How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?”
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) said by 1400 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
Recorded in: (24 April 1779) p. 424
“Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory.”
François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) first seen 1826 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Les Natchez (1826).
“Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.”
Donald Knuth (born 1938) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Foreword to the book A=B (1996)
“Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.”
Donald Knuth (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from People, 27 September 1976
“Andy Warhol: I think everybody should like everybody. Gene Swenson: Is that what Pop Art is all about? Andy Warhol: Yes, it's liking things.”
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote in 'What is Pop Art? Answers from 8 Painters', in Art News 62 (November 1963)
“I can never get over when you're on the beach how beautiful the sand looks and the water washes it away and straightens it up and the trees and the grass all look great. I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.”
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: "Inside Andy Warhol," by Andy Warhol. Cosmopolitan, 179, Sept. 1975, p. 189.
“This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.”
Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among the several sins that I have been accused of committing, none is more false than the one that I have, as the principal objective in my work, the spirit of research. When I paint my object is to show what I have found and not what I am looking for. In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by facts and not by reasons... [Paris 1923].”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 311
“And from the point of view of art there are no concrete or abstract forms, but only forms which are more or less convincing lies. That those lies are necessary to our mental selves is beyond any doubt, as it is through them that we form our aesthetic point of view of life. (Paris 1923)”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Academic training in beauty is a sham. We have been deceived... The beauties of the Parthenon, Venuses, Nymphs, Narcissuses are so many lies. Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Herschel Browning Chip (1968, p. 271), quoted in Chipp (1978, 266); As cited in: Constance Milbrath (1998), Patterns of Artistic Development in Children, p. 257.
“Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defence against the enemy.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Les lettres françaises (1943-03-24).
“There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into a sun.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Sergei Eisenstein (1957), Film form [and]: The film sense, p. 127.
“Even the signature of Kodra is a work of art.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Repubblica, 2006
“For me, art has neither past nor future. All I have ever made was for the present.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their forms had no more influence on me than they did on Matisse. Or Derain. But for them, the masks were sculptures like all others. When Matisse showed me his first African head, he spoke to me of Egyptian art.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Andre Malraux cites Picasso in: Anatoliĭ Podoksik, Marina Aleksandrovna Bessonova, Pablo Picasso (1989), Picasso: The Artists Work in Soviet Museums. p. 13.
“It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the mass media offer is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. This is bad for everyone; the majority lose all genuine taste of their own, and the minority become cultural snobs.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When one looks into the window of a store which sells devotional art objects, one can't help wishing the iconoclasts had won.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Healing," Papa would tell me, "is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing Nature.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[[Argument|[A]rgument]] is a... form of the art of fighting—with words... inspired by... getting nearer to... truth...”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every single damn thing matters! Only we don't realize. We just tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, and we don't realize that's a lie.”
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One must not always think that feeling is everything. Art is nothing without form.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 12 August 1846
“You can calculate]] the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it. (14 June 1853)”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) said by 1880 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The music of Marian Anderson and other African-American artists has greatly enriched our quality of life and created one of our Nation's most treasured art forms. As universal and original expressions of the human experience, their body of work, both past and present, entertains, inspires, and thrills countless people around the world.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Clarke's Law of Revolutionary Ideas: Every revolutionary idea — in science, politics, art, or whatever — seems to evoke three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases:(1) "It's completely impossible — don't waste my time"; (2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing"; (3) "I said it was a good idea all along.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Promise of Space (1968); This and similar statements attributed to Mahatma Gandhi and J. B. S. Haldane may ultimately be derived from a statement attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer:
“Great art and domestic bliss are mutually incompatible. Sooner or later, you'll have to make your choice.”
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indeed, it may well be argued that one reason for the decline in science, art, and literature was the increasing absorption of the better minds into a new sort of intellectual pursuit – theology.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Roman Empire (1967), p. 118
“Can I just once again state my love for it and hope it gets merged soon? Maybe the code isn't perfect, but I've skimmed it, and compared to the horrors that are OpenVPN and IPSec, it's a work of art.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever is known to us by consciousness, is known beyond possibility of question. What one sees or feels, whether bodily or mentally, one cannot but be sure that one sees or feels. No science is required for the purpose of establishing such truths; no rules of art can render our knowledge of them more certain than it is in itself. There is no logic for this portion of our knowledge.”
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“Authors—essayist, atheist, novelist, realist, rhymester, play your part, Paint the mortal shame of nature with the living hues of art.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“But, thou art ever there, to bring The hovering vision back, and breathe New glories o'er the blighted spring, And call a lovelier Life from Death, And whisper, with a voice divine, Of real worlds, as bright as thine.”
Emily Brontë (1818–1848) said by 1848 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
“Take care to sell your horse before he dies. The art of life is passing losses on.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone knows the glory of the twain Who gave America the aeroplane To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane. Some poor fool has been saying in his heart Glory is out of date in life and art. Our venture in revolution and outlawry Has justified itself in freedom's story Right down to now in glory upon glory.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory — Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) first seen 1821 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source Put this on something
Recorded in: Music, When Soft Voices Die (1821)