Source: The Romantic Manifesto (1969), Chapter 3 ("Art and Sense of Life")
“Art is the Mirror of our betrayed ideals.”
—
Doris Lessing
,
book
The Golden Notebook
Source: The Golden Notebook
Last update June 3, 2021.
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Doris Lessing 94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … 1919–2013Related quotes
Florence Earle Coates
(1850–1927) American writer and poet
The New York Times (10 December 1916) From "Godlessness Mars Most Contemporary Poetry." http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9A0CE2D7153BE233A25753C1A9649D946796D6CF
“It's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”
Oscar Wilde
(1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Source: Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man
“If art reflects life, it does so with special mirrors.”
¶ 73
A Short Organum for the Theatre (1949)
“Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Bertolt Brecht
(1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director
Mistakenly attributed to Vladimir Mayakovsky in The Political Psyche (1993) by Andrew Samuels, p. 9; mistakenly attributed to Brecht in Paulo Freire: A Critical Encounter (1993) by Peter McLaren and Peter Leonard, p. 80; variant translation: "Art is not a mirror held up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it."
First recorded in Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (1924; edited by William Keach (2005), Ch. 4: Futurism, p. 120): "Art, it is said, is not a mirror, but a hammer: it does not reflect, it shapes."
Disputed
“Young people want mirrors. Older people want art.”
Chuck Palahniuk
(1962) American novelist, essayist
Source: Burnt Tongues
“Art doesn't always mirror life and life's hard sometimes.”
Ben Kowalewicz
(1975) musician
From "The Diary of Billy Talent":
“Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Vladimir Mayakovsky
(1893–1930) Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, artist and stage and film actor
Attributed to Vladimir Mayakovsky in The Political Psyche (1993) by Andrew Samuels, p. 9; attributed to Bertolt Brecht in Paulo Freire : A Critical Encounter (1993) by Peter McLaren and Peter Leonard, p. 80
Variant translation: Art is not a mirror held up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it.
Disputed
The She-Ancient, in Pt. V
Source: 1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Context: Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.