
“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.”
The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees
Simone Weil, The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees
Misattributed
“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.”
The Pre-War Notebook (1933-1939), published in First and Last Notebooks (1970) edited by Richard Rees
“Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.”
Source: Feeling and Form (1953), Ch. 3, p. 40
Source: The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927), p. 170.
Source: 1940s, And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America (1942), p. 134
“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
in a letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr. 6 November, 1955; as quoted in Abstract Expressionism, Barbara Hess, Taschen, Köln, 2006, p. 34
Baziotes' quote is referring to his painting 'Pompeii', Baziotes painted in 1955
1950s
paraphrasing Frege's Begriffsschrift, a formula language, modeled upon that of arithmetic, for pure thought (1879) in Jean Van Heijenoort ed., in From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931 (1967)