“Art is upon the Town!”
1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)
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James McNeill Whistler 26
American-born, British-based artist 1834–1903Related quotes
“Civilization is the art of living in towns of such size that everyone does not know everyone else.”
Book II, Chapter 1, p. 149
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.”
Source: Against Interpretation and Other Essays (1966), p. 7

Source: Kindergarten Chats (1918), Ch. 10 : A Roman Temple

Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 27, "To the Jews" 1) lines 9-12

Directive (1947)
Context: Back out of all this now too much for us,
Back in a time made simple by the loss
Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off
Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather,
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.
The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
May seem as if it should have been a quarry –
Great monolithic knees the former town
Long since gave up pretense of keeping covered.
And there's a story in a book about it…

“The magician depends for the success of his art upon the credulity of the people.”
The Art of Magic (1891)
Context: The magician depends for the success of his art upon the credulity of the people. Whatever mystifies, excites curiosity; whatever in turn baffles this curiosity, works the marvelous.
Of course human ignorance is no longer a source of profit to the magician, as it was in the days of the diviner, the oracle, and the soothsayer. Few believe nowadays that the magician claims any supernatural aid. I will scarcely be believed, therefore, when I tell my readers that in a few cities in Italy and Spain in which I have performed hundreds came to see me as a curiosity, impressed with the belief that for the power he gave me I had made a compact with the devil for the delivery of my soul. In these cities I have seen people reverently cross themselves when I was passing…

As quoted in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970 - 1990) edited by M Steck.

Quoted in: Daniel James Brooks (2013) Poetics. Book 1, p. 72.