“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.
A collection of quotes on the topic of drawing, draw, use, doing.
“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.
“We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
“Something told me to draw or die.”
Minnie Evans (1892–1987) American artist
Cited In Susan Mitchell Crawley "Let It Shine: Self-Taught Art From The T. Marshall Hahn Collection" p. 177
“Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)
“Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
State of the Union address (2 December 1902)
1900s
Context: Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.
Robert Greene (1959) American author
Chap. 8 : Change Your Circumstances by Changing Your Attitude
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)
Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist
As quoted in White Coat Tales : Medicine's Heroes, Heritage and Misadventures (2007) by Robert B. Taylor, p. 141. The original Source is the last sentence of https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/pierre-curie-lecture.pdf
Misattributed
Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author
Quoted from his first book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Success_and_Failure_Based_on_Reason_and_Reality, "Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality" https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUCCESS-FAILURE-BASED-REASON-REALITY/dp/9970983903/ on Amazon, P.75 (July 2018)
Chuck Jones (1912–2002) American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films
Nick Carter (1980) singer from the United States
Source: Facing the Music And Living To Talk About It
“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”
Le Corbusier (1887–1965) architect, designer, urbanist, and writer
“All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?”
Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter
Existencilism (2002)
Source: Wall and Piece
“Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee.
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?”
Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor
Bill Evans (1929–1980) American jazz pianist
http://jazztimes.com/articles/20128-miles-davis-and-bill-evans-miles-and-bill-in-black-white.
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Socrates, p. 145
Eupalinos ou l'architecte (1921)
C.G. Jung book Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self
a special instance of love at first sight
Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.338.30
“Caesar overtook his advanced guard at the river Rubicon, which formed the frontier between Gaul and Italy. Well aware how critical a decision confronted him, he turned to his staff, remarking: "We may still draw back but, once across that little bridge, we shall have to fight it out."”
Consecutusque cohortis ad Rubiconem flumen, qui provinciae eius finis erat, paulum constitit, ac reputans quantum moliretur, conversus ad proximos: "Etiam nunc," inquit, "regredi possumus; quod si ponticulum transierimus, omnia armis agenda erunt."
Sueton book The Twelve Caesars
Source: The Twelve Caesars, Julius Caesar, Ch. 31
Roger Bacon book Opus Majus
Opus Majus, c. 1267
Source: Robert Belle Burke (2002) The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon Part 2. p. 583
John Kricfalusi (1955) Canadian animator
Wheeler W. Dixon (2001), "Creating Ren and Stimpy (1992)", Collected Interviews: Voices from Twentieth-Century Cinema (SIU Press): 89
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
"Fragments of a Tariff Discussion", Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 415 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:423?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; according to the source Lincoln's "scraps about protection were written by Lincoln, between his election to Congress in 1846, and taking his seat in Dec. 1847". <br class="br">1840s
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1845/mar/17/agricultural-interest in the House of Commons (17 March 1845). <br class="br">1840s
“It is not bright colors but good drawing that makes figures beautiful.”
Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter
As quoted in The Quotable Artist (2002) by Peggy Hadden, p. 32.
undated quotes
Sri Anandamoyi Ma (1896–1982) Hindu saint
Gopinath Kaviraj, Sri Sri Ma Anandamayi: Upadesa O Prasnottara, p. 1
By followers
George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist
"Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool," Polemic (March 1947)
John Kricfalusi (1955) Canadian animator
In Amid Amidi The John Kricfalusi Interview, Part 2 http://www.cartoonbrew.com/old-brew/the-john-kricfalusi-interview-part-2-434.html, Cartoon Brew, 31 August 2004.
Max Ernst (1891–1976) German painter, sculptor and graphic artist
Quote from 'Max Ernst im Gesprach mit Eduard Roditi' (1967), as cited in Max Ernst, Écritures Paris, 1970, p. 416
1951 - 1976
Ali book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha
Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism
Henri Fayol (1916) cited in: Russell C. Swansburg (1996) Management and Leadership for Nurse Managers, p. 1
George Orwell book The Road to Wigan Pier
The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) - Full text online http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200391.txt
The Mother (1878–1973) spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo
When she was attacked by a serious fever epidemic which had engulfed Japan in 1917 and this occult experience was widely publicized after the epidemic had abated, quoted in "Japan (1916-20)", also in “Yogi-doctors” and Occult Healing Arts:Towards a Post-colonial Anthropology of Holistic Therapeutics at Sri Aurobindo Ashram http://www.isa-sociology.org/publ/E-symposium/E-symposium-vol-1-1-2011/EBul-Mar-11-Paranjape.pdf., p. 8
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist
Quote of Paul Gauguin, in Avant et après (1903)
1890s - 1910s
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
The original quote attributed to Picasso in 1951 quotes him as saying that 'even if he were imprisoned, he would draw on the dust-covered prison walls and on the floor, with his fingers dripped in his own spit' (see above). This expansion appears to derive from an interview given by actor Dustin Hoffman to the L.A. Times in 2001.
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/mar/04/entertainment/ca-32985
Disputed
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
In his letter to Theo, The Hague, 11 March 1883, http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/12/274.htm?qp=art.material,as translated by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh (1991) <br class="br">1880s, 1883 <br class="br">Context: It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The difficulties are indeed numerous and great, and cannot be overcome at once. To make progress is a kind of miner’s work; it doesn’t advance as quickly as one would like, and as others also expect, but as one stands before such a task, the basic necessities are patience and faithfulness. In fact, I do not think much about the difficulties, because if one thought of them too much one would get stunned or disturbed.<br>A weaver who has to direct and to interweave a great many little threads has no time to philosophize about it, but rather he is so absorbed in his work that he doesn’t think but acts, and he feels how things must go more than he can explain it. Even though neither you nor I, in talking together, would come to any definite plans, etc., perhaps we might mutually strengthen that feeling that something is ripening within us. And that is what I should like.
“I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman.”
Francis Drake (1540–1596) English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era
Speech to his crew off of Puerto San Julian, Argentina, prior to entering the Strait of Magellan (May 1578)
Context: For by the life of God, it doth even take my wits from me to think on it. Here is such controversy between the sailors and gentlemen, and such stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors, it doth make me mad to hear it. But, my masters, I must have it left. For I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. What! let us show ourselves to be of a company and let us not give occasion to the enemy to rejoice at our decay and overthrow. I would know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I know there is not any such here...
“Do not say, "Draw the curtain that I may see the painting." The curtain is the painting.”
Nikos Kazantzakis book The Saviors of God
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: "I do not know whether behind appearances there lives and moves a secret essence superior to me. Nor do I ask; I do not care. I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss. Do not say, "Draw the curtain that I may see the painting." The curtain is the painting.
Isaac Newton book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Preface (8 May 1686)
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Source: Letter to Edward Lytton Bulwer from Constantinople, Turkey (27 December 1830), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 174
“Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of this scene”
Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Carol Gilligan (1936) American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist
Source: In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist
Source: Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1961 - 1970, Diary of a Genius (1964), p. 82
“Drawing is not what you see but what you must make others see.”
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist
posthumous quotes, The Shop-Talk of Edgar Degas', (1961)
Cassandra Clare book City of Bones
Jace to Clary, pg. 204
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)
“Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.”
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
“When you draw something it lives and when you photograph it it dies”
John Fowles book The Collector
Source: The Collector
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), IX The Practice of Painting
“When I got my first commission after Habitat, for a few weeks I couldn't draw.”
Moshe Safdie (1938) Israeli-Canadian architect
CBC television interview, used for many years in CBC Montreal's sign-on montage
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia
the seizure of Bologna
Source: Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It (1944), Ch. 2
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
From Interview to the author , in Osamu Tezuka, Jumping ; quoted in AA.VV., Osamu Tezuka: A Manga Biography , vol. 4, translated by Marta Fogato, Coconino Press, Bologna, 2001, p. 178. ISBN 8888063188
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 178.
Walter Russell (1871–1963) American philosopher
The Man who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe
Alejandro Jodorowsky (1929) Filmmaker and comics writer
Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)
Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka
2014 interview http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/01/30/ghiblis-hayao-miyazaki-says-the-anime-industrys-problem-is-that-its-full-of-anime-fans/ with Japanese news website Golden Times, 27 January 2014. Translated by RocketNews24 on January 30, 2014.
Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) first wife of Henry VIII of England (1485–1536)
Sharon Turner (1828) The History of England from the Earliest Period to the Death of Elizabeth, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green.
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
Source: http://www.tcj.com/tezuka-osamu-and-american-comics/ Tezuka Osamu and American Comics
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1920s, Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda http://books.google.com/books?id=9tQsg5ITfHsC&q=%22The+State+is+a+collection+of+officials+different+for+different+purposes+drawing+comfortable+incomes+so+long+as+the+status+quo+is+preserved+The+only+alteration+they+are+likely+to+desire+in+the+status+quo+is+an+increase+of+bureaucracy+and+the+power+of+bureaucrats%22&pg=PA134#v=onepage
Rainer Maria Rilke book New Poems
Die nächste Flut verwischt den Weg im Watt,
und alles wird auf allen Seiten gleich;
die kleine Insel draußen aber hat
die Augen zu; verwirrend kreist der Deich<p>um ihre Wohner, die in einem Schlaf
geboren werden, drin sie viele Welten
verwechseln schweigend, denn sie reden selten,
und jeder Satz ist wie ein Epitaph
Die Insel I (The Island I) (as translated by Cliff Crego)
Neue Gedichte (New Poems) (1907)
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Quote in "Picasso", Hans L. C. Jaffe, Thames and Hudson Ltd
Attributed from posthumous publications
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
in Denis Rouart (1972) Claude Monet, p. 21 : About his youth
after Monet's death
Hokusai (1760–1849) Japanese artist
On one of his pseudonom, Gyakyo Rojin. He may have said the above in his late life definitely, since he began to use the name Gwakyo Rojin in 1843.
Attributed
“I have no imagination. I never plan a drawing, they just happen.”
Minnie Evans (1892–1987) American artist
Cited in: Paul Arnett, William Arnett (2000), Souls Grown Deep: The tree gave the dove a leaf. p. 308
Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director
General Security: The Liquidation of Opium (1925)
Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist
Defence of Hindu Society (1983)
W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand
"The Poet & The City", p. 81
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) French painter
The previous Summer, at Barèges, while he lay with his leg in plaster, Lautrec had often been visited in the evening by his cousin, Jeanne d'Armagnac
Source: 1879-1884, T-Lautrec, by Henri Perruchot, p. 53 - written note in Nice, Winter of 1880
“[.. it had been fun] to be able to draw in the midst of boredom and misery..”
Otto Dix (1891–1969) German painter and printmaker
Otto Dix quoted by Eva Karcher, in Otto Dix, New York: Crown Publishers, 1987, p. 14; as cited by Roy Forward, in 'Education resource material: beauty, truth and goodness in Dix's War' https://nga.gov.au/dix/edu.pdf, p. 8 <br class="br">Dix sometimes later recalled in this way of his endless hours in the trenches of World War 1 (1914-1918)
Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church
Section 167
2010s, 2013, Evangelii Gaudium · The Joy of the Gospel
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2013, Cape Town University Address (June 2013)
Noam Chomsky book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Herman and Chomsky (1988), Manufacturing Consent, p. 252.
Quotes 1960s-1980s, 1980s
Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War
Letter to his son http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/03/robert-e-Lee-owned-slaves-and-defended-slavery/, G. W. Custis Lee (23 January 1861). <br class="br">1860s <br class="br">Context: I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope, therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a resort to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It is intended for 'perpetual Union,' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession: anarchy would have been established, and not a government, by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and all the other patriots of the Revolution. … Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me. I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and, save in defense will draw my sword on none.
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) Japanese cartoonist and animator
From My Diary manga , 1966; quoted in AA.VV., Osamu Tezuka: A Manga Biography , vol. 3, translated by Marta Fogato, Coconino Press, Bologna, 2001, p. 26. ISBN 8888063102
Jürgen Habermas (1929) German sociologist and philosopher
Habermas (2006) "Conversation about God and the World." Time of transitions. Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 150-151.
George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
Stan Lee (1922–2018) American comic book writer
The artist may see it differently; maybe he feels it should be a shot of Spider-Man swinging on his web, or climbing upside-down on the ceiling or something. <br class="br">On the early days of work at Marvel Comics. Interview (1975) http://www.ditko.comics.org/ditko/why/whyquote.html
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Address on the natural and nuclear energy disasters in Japan (March 2011)
Francois Villon (1431–1463) Mediæval French poet
Robert Louis Stevenson Familiar Studies of Men and Books (London: Chatto & Windus, 1882), ch. 6.
Criticism