
“A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.”
VIII. 351 (tr. Martin Hammond).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Δειλαί τοι δειλῶν γε καὶ ἐγγύαι ἐγγυάασθαι.
“A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.”
"Ценность науки в предвидении" https://vpk-news.ru/articles/14632 (26 February 2013)
Nobel lecture (1970)
Context: Let us not violate the RIGHT of the artist to express exclusively his own experiences and introspections, disregarding everything that happens in the world beyond. Let us not DEMAND of the artist, but — reproach, beg, urge and entice him — that we may be allowed to do. After all, only in part does he himself develop his talent; the greater part of it is blown into him at birth as a finished product, and the gift of talent imposes responsibility on his free will. Let us assume that the artist does not OWE anybody anything: nevertheless, it is painful to see how, by retiring into his self-made worlds or the spaces of his subjective whims, he CAN surrender the real world into the hands of men who are mercenary, if not worthless, if not insane.
Quote of Malevich, 1927 in Artists on Art; from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 452
1921 - 1930
The Awakening of Universal Motherhood (2002)
Source: Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments (1525), pp. 84-85
"If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others" (1977)
“A poem does invite, it does require.”
Source: The Life of Poetry (1949), Chapter One : The Fear of Poetry, p. 8
Context: A poem does invite, it does require. What does it invite? A poem invites you to feel. More than that: it invites you to respond. And better than that: a poem invites a total response.
This response is total, but it is reached through the emotions. A fine poem will seize your imagination intellectually — that is, when you reach it, you will reach it intellectually too — but the way is through emotion, through what we call feeling.