“In art economy is always beauty.”

— Henry James, book The Altar of the Dead

The Altar of the Dead.
Prefaces (1907-1909)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In art economy is always beauty." by Henry James?

Henry James154

American novelist, short story author, and literary critic 1843–1916

Related quotes

“Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Source: 1900s, Man and Superman (1903), p. 235

“Art always serves beauty, and beauty is the joy of possessing form, and form is the key to organic life since no living thing can exist without it.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

“Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 113
Context: Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. Here the aesthetic coincides with the ethical.

“Beauty plus pity-that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is pity for the simple reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the manner dies with the matter, the world dies with the individual.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

“Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

As quoted in New York World Telegram & Sun (21 August 1960); also in Threads: My Life Behind the Seams in the High-Stakes World of Fashion (2004) by Joseph Abboud, p. 79