“A master-piece … may be unwelcome but it is never dull.”

— Gertrude Stein

What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them (1936)

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Gertrude Stein 160

American art collector and experimental writer of novels, p… 1874–1946

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“If you do not remember while you are writing, it may seem confused to others but actually it is clear and eventually that clarity will be clear, that is what a master-piece is, but if you remember while you are writing it will seem clear at the time to any one but the clarity will go out of it that is what a master-piece is not.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them (1936)

“You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.”

Thomas Pynchon book Gravity's Rainbow

Source: Gravity's Rainbow

“It is important to distinguish the difficulty of describing and learning a piece of notation from the difficulty of mastering its implications. […] Indeed, the very suggestiveness of a notation may make it seem harder to learn because of the many properties it suggests for exploration.”

Kenneth E. Iverson (1920–2004) Canadian computer scientist

§5.2
Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979)

“Visual thinking is often driven more strongly by the conceptual knowledge we use to organize our images than by the contents of the images themselves. Chess masters are known for their remarkable memory for the pieces on a chessboard. But it's not because people with photographic memories become chess masters. The masters are no better than beginners when remembering a board of randomly arranged pieces. Their memory captures meaningful relations among the pieces, such as threats and defenses, not just their distribution in space.”

Steven Pinker book How the Mind Works

Source: How the Mind Works (1997), p. 295

“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House", in Sister Outsider

“1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.”

Lawrence Weiner (1942) American artist

Lawrence Weiner. "Declaration of Intent" (1968); cited in: Lucy R. Lippard (1973). Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. p. xvii

“Preaching has become a byword for long and dull conversation of any kind; and whoever wishes to imply, in any piece of writing, the absence of everything agreeable and inviting, calls it a sermon.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Vol. I, ch. 3
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

“In the long-run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him, but the necessity is not so immediate.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII, p. 80.

“By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book I, Ch. 4.

“Once you had put the pieces back together, even though you may look intact, you were never quite the same as you'd been before the fall.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

“A master-piece … may be unwelcome but it is never dull.”

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