“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
P.T. Barnum (1810–1891) American showman and businessman
Quotes about art
A collection of quotes on the topic of dance, art, work, working.
Best quotes about art
“Art is to console those who are broken by life.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
“Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Quoted in: LIFE http://books.google.com/books?id=9EgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9, Vol. 57, nr. 11 (11 September 1964). p. 9. <br class="br">1960s
“Patience is the art of hoping.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
La patience est l’art d’espérer.
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
“Inability, human incapacity, is the only boundary to an art.”
Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)
Source: Le Naturalisme Au Theatre
“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
“We have art in order not to die of the truth.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“To "catch" a husband is an art; to "hold" him is a job.”
Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex
Bk. 2, part 5, Ch. 1: The Married Woman, p. 468
Source: The Second Sex (1949)
Quotes about art
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Source: Grupo Ígneo. Interview. https://grupoigneo.com/blog/jose-baroja-el-cuento-es-un-trago-breve/
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Source: Original: (ja) たとえばバレエとかミュージカルとかもそうですけれども、芸術というのは、明らかに正しい技術、徹底された基礎によって裏付けされた表現力、芸術であって、それが足りないと芸術にはならないと僕は思っています。
Source: Interview at the Foreign Correspondence Club of Japan from 27 February 2018
https://quotepark.com/authors/yuzuru-hanyu/
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
“If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?”
Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist
“Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Introduction.
Source: Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Context: Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magical language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.
Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969) founder of aikido
Speaking of a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace" in 1942, during World War II, as quoted in Adjusting Though Reflex : Romancing Zen (2010) by Rodger Hyodo, p. 76
Context: The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter — it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.
“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.”
John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American politician
Quoted in Matthew M. Radmanesh, Cracking the Code of Our Physical Universe, p. 269.
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
As quoted in Melody Maker (1991-09-14).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
Source: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 22
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director
Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953) Russian artist
Quoted from a biographical note written by Tatlin in 1929, published in Tatlin', Weingarten; Kunstverlag Weingarten, 1987), p. 328; as quoted by Vasilii Rakitin, in The great Utopia - The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915-1932; Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1992, p. 34
Quotes, 1926 - 1954
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
As quoted in If Not God, Then What?
Source: If Not God, Then What? (2007) by Joshua Fost, p. 93
“The Art of Peace begins with you.”
Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969) founder of aikido
As quoted in Inspire! What Great Leaders Do (2004) by Lance Secretan, p. 45
Context: The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace. Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow. You are here to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all than you encounter.
Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor
Variant: I think art is the only thing that's spirtual in the world. And I refuse to be forced to believe in other people's interpretations of God. I don't think anybody should be. No one person can own the copyright to what God means.
“You don't make art, you find it”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
“I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.”
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor
Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor
Source: Stanley Kubrick: Interviews
“Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!”
Percy Bysshe Shelley book Ode to the West Wind
St. I
Ode to the West Wind (1819)
Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859) German writer
Quoted in Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943), p. 175.
Attributed
Charlie Parker (1920–1955) American jazz saxophonist and composer
As quoted in Bird : The Legend Of Charlie Parker (1977) by Robert George Reisner, p. 27
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Date unknown, but appears on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!.
Interviews (1989-1994), Video
“The art of war is of vital importance to the State.”
Sun Tzu book The Art of War
The Art of War, Chapter I · Detail Assessment and Planning
Context: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.
“Photography is not only an art, it is an international language that everybody understands.”
NasserTone (1994) Nasser Ali Albahrani is a director, cinematographer, photographer, producer, & YouTuber, who was born on April 3…
Amasi Program, Sharjah TV Interview (March 1, 2016)
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
L'art n'est pas chaste [...], on devrait l’interdire aux ignorants innocents, ne jamais mettre en contact avec lui ceux qui y sont insuffisamment préparés. Oui, l'art est dangereux. Ou s'il est chaste, ce n'est pas de l'art.
Quote by Antonina Vallentin (1963 [1957]), Picasso, p. 168.
1960s
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist
"What Makes Opera Grand?", Vogue (December 1958)
“Take your broken heart, make it into art.”
Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American actress, screenwriter and novelist
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)
As quoted in The Federal Career Service: A Look Ahead (1954)
1950s
Variant: 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.
“… and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
“Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
La peinture n'est pas faite pour décorer des appartements. C'est un instrument de guerre offensive et défensive contre l'ennemi.
La pintura no se ha inventado para adornar las habitaciones. La pintura es un arma ofensiva, en la defensa contra el enemigo.
Les lettres françaises (1943-03-24).
Quotes, 1940's
“Art is the most effective mode of communications that exists.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist
Source: An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (2005), p. 86
Source: War Talk
Zeno of Citium (-334–-263 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, ii. 8.
Keith Haring (1958–1990) American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s b…
Haring – Art in Transit http://www.haring.com/!/selected_writing/haring-art-in-transit#.V1cw0tIrKyw The Keith Haring Foundation
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, artist and stage and film actor
"Shrine or Factory?" (1918); translation from Mikhail Anikst et al. (eds.) Soviet Commercial Design of the Twenties (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987) p. 15
Jeff Tweedy (1967) musician
Interviewed in 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65688,00.html
“Art is a demonstration of which nature is the proof.”
George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin
L'art est une démonstration dont la nature est la preuve.
François le Champi, Introduction (1848); Jane Minot Sedgwick (trans.) François the Waif {New York: H. M. Caldwell, 1894) p. 17
“In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.”
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic
Newsweek (1973-12-24).
Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer
Speech at Queen's College, City University of New York (March 12, 1975). "The Sexual Politics of Fear and Courage", ch. 5, published in Our Blood (1976).
“Ah, music! What a beautiful art! But what a wretched profession!”
Georges Bizet (1838–1875) French composer
Starement of 3 August 1867, as quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 115
Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism
Source: Henri Fayol addressed his colleagues in the mineral industry, 1900, p. 909
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Variant translations
It is best to keep one’s own state intact; to crush the enemy’s state is only second best.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Source: The Art of War, Chapter VIII · Variations and Adaptability
Emily Dickinson Love — thou art high
453: Love — thou art high —
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)
“Art is about trying to find the good in people and making the world a more compassionate place.”
Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician
Sun Tzu book The Art of War
(zh-TW) 孫子曰：國之上下，死生之地，存亡之道，不可不察也。
The Art of War, Chapter 1 · Detail Assessment and Planning
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
Source: Review of Hunger and Love by Lionel Britton, in The Adelphi (April 1931)
“The beauty of art is in our imperfection.”
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Source: Radiorama de Occidente. "La Otra Historia". 1480 Rock and Pop AM. Guadalajara. Mexico.
“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist”
René Magritte (1898–1967) Belgian surrealist artist
Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita
Source: I'm thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art, And this is the only immortality that you and I may share, my Lolita.
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
Thomas Merton book No Man Is an Island
Variant: Art enables us to find ourselves and loose ourselves at the same time.
Source: No Man Is an Island
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
Apparently attributed to Marx in Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me, first published in 1944. A citation of this can been seen in the Kentucky New Era on November 9, 1964 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=X-orAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZWcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4581,3323702&dq=art-of-looking-for-trouble&hl=en. Also attributed to Marx by Rand Paul in "The Long Stand," ch. 1 of Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America (New York, N. Y.: Center Street, 26 May 2015), p. 5. <br class="br">The original quotation belongs to Sir Ernest Benn (Henry Powell Spring, What is Truth?, Orange Press, 1944, p. 31 https://books.google.com/books?id=snxbAAAAMAAJ&q=Ernest+benn+%22Politics+is+the+art+of%22&dq=Ernest+benn+%22Politics+is+the+art+of%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAjgUahUKEwiK3Zm-qojIAhWGVZIKHdFYBqY); a first known citation reportedly appears in the Springfield (MA) Republican on July 27, 1930. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. <br class="br">Source: Gyles Brandreth, Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language, Coronet, 2015.
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
"Lady Lazarus" http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/lady.html <br class="br">Source: Ariel (1965)
“The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Robert Henri (1865–1929) American painter
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Herschel Browning Chip (1968, p. 270).
Other translation:
Abstract art is only painting. And what's so dramatic about that? There is no abstract art. One must always begin with something. Afterwards one can remove all semblance of reality.
Richard Friedenthal (1968, p. 256-7).
Longer version:
Abstract art is only painting. And what's so dramatic about that? There is no abstract art. One must always begin with something. Afterwards one can remove all semblance of reality; there is no longer any danger as the idea of the object has left an indelible imprint. It is the object which aroused the artist, stimulated his ideas and set of his emotions. These ideas and emotions will be imprisoned in his work for good.. .Whether he wants it or not, man is the instrument of nature; she imposes on him character and appearance. In my paintings of Dinard, as in my paintings of Purville, I have given expression to more or less the same vision.. .. You cannot go against nature. She is stronger than the strongest of men. We can permit ourselves some liberties, but in details only (Boisgeloup, winter 1934).
As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 313
Quotes, 1930's, "Conversations avec Picasso," 1934–35
Context: Abstract art is only painting. What about drama?
There is no abstract art. You always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
“Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art.”
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer
As quoted in Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought (1992) by John Paynter, p. 590
Unsourced variant: Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Source: 1920s, "Picasso Speaks" (1923), p. 315.