Art & Beauty Quotes
435 quotes
Art & Beauty
Reflections on creativity, aesthetics, and the nature of beauty
435 Quotes
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote
— A Precocious Autobiography (1963)
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free
— Quoted by Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Artists
A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist’s world
— Quoted in Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)
My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light.
— Quoted in Hans Hofmann: Chimbote Murals (1951)
There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been
— Lines Written in the Euganean Hills (poem)
The music of this endless song is composed of notes that never repeat themselves, yet they echo through every heart
— Stray Birds
The painter’s mind is a room with many windows; some open to sunlight, others to thunder, all to the wild weather of dreams
— from interviews and writings of Leonora Carrington; attributed to her reflections on art
The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
The poetic imagination is a lamp that sees, not a mirror that reflects
— Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900)
The painter is a collector who only wants to collect himself
— The Drawings of Jean Cocteau, 1927
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts
— Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, December 1817
It is the function of creative man to perceive and to connect the seemingly unconnected
— Article in 'The Electric Delicate', 1941
Form arises when content loses its inward pressure and solidifies into calm
— Letters on Cézanne
Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood
— Notebooks
Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds
— A Defence of Poetry (1821)
One eye sees, the other feels
— Creative Confession (1920)
In the garden of the gods, even a broken statue casts its silent wisdom upon the living
— Letter to Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1903
The universe speaks in the language of patterns, but only the rarest eyes learn its grammar.
— The Poetics of Space (1958)
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision
— The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 1890
The function of poetry is not to give you what you want, but to make you realize something you didn’t know you wanted
— A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942)
A picture held us captive, and we could not get outside it
— Philosophical Investigations, §115
Nature never hurries. Atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work
— Society and Solitude (1870), Chapter: Works and Days
Colour is a power which directly influences the soul
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911
That which is not slightly distorted lacks sensible appeal; from which it follows that irregularity— that is to say, the unexpected, surprise and astonishment, is an essential part and characteristic of beauty
— The Painter of Modern Life, 1863
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others
— Letters and Essays (various correspondence)
To be modern is not a fashion, it is a state; it is necessary to understand history, and who you are, in order to know what you want to be
— Book: 'Towards a New Architecture' (1923)
The painter should be solitary, all the days of his life. If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself
— Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery
— As quoted in The Observer, London (1962)
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper
— Unpopularity Essays (1926)
Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail
— The 'Genius' (1915)
Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders
— Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 217
The painter passes through states of fullness and emptiness, and that is what makes the rhythm of his work
— As quoted in Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (1988)
I do not want a private museum of my own ego, but to see whether the stones can speak
— Letter to Philip James, 1962
I don't want life to imitate art. I want life to be art
— The Necessity of Art (1959)
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music
— Music at Night, Essay Collection, 1931
To create one’s own world takes courage
— Letter to Anita Pollitzer, c. 1922
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it
— Attributed in various interviews
What we have to learn, in painting as in life, is to see the world through the eyes of children
— Notes of a Painter (1908)
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity
— Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery
— Modern Painters, Volume IV
The painter tries to master color, but color is a formidable master
— Speech at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1947 (paraphrase documented in 'Matisse on Art')
Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul
— Letter to friend August Strindberg (1892)
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way—things I had no words for
— Interview, 1920s
Every great poem is, in one sense, a bridge built across a landscape of silence
— The Bow and the Lyre, 1956
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter
— The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers
— The Creative Process, essay in 'Creative America' (1962)
I have walked this earth for thirty years, and, out of gratitude, want to leave some souvenir
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, October 1883
Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder
— Inner Land (Das Innere Land)
At the still point of the turning world, there the dance is
— Four Quartets, Burnt Norton
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere
— Attributed; Notebooks & Conversations
All colors will agree in the dark
— Essay: 'Of Unity in Religion', 1625
What’s done to children, they will do to society
— The Human Mind, 1930
Art is the proper task of life
— The Will to Power, Book IV, Aphorism 822
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul
— The Awakening (1899)
To see far is one thing, going there is another
— Attributed by contemporary accounts of Brâncuși's teaching
If faces were more like violets, and less like mirrors, people would do a lot more smiling at flowers
— The Dyer's Hand (essay collection)
We don't make photographs with our cameras, we make them with our hearts and our minds
— Interview, Time Magazine (1979)
To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower; Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour
— Auguries of Innocence (poem)
Every work of art is an uncommitted crime
— Aesthetic Theory (1970)
The deepest experience of the creator is feminine, for it is experience of receiving and bearing
— Letters to a Young Poet
The painter should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him
— As quoted in 'The Romantic Spirit in German Art, 1790-1990'
Give me a museum and I'll fill it
— Remark attributed in various interviews and biographies
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye
— The Little Prince
There are things in the human mind which it is better for creative art to leave in a vague twilight
— Dialogues, 1931
A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires
— Interview in 'Life' magazine, 1969
There are things that are not sayable, they make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical
— Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 6.522
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made
— Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose (1784)
Lines and colors once released from the necessity of representation, begin to live lives of their own, rebelling gently from their old masters
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look
— Reported aphorism, interviews in 1950s
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures
— Life Thoughts (1858)
With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy
— Unspecified, attributed aphorism
The painter should be a philosopher; the eye should learn to think
— Quoted in Conversations with Cézanne (ed. Michael Doran, 1978)
There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion
— Essay 'Ligeia' (1838)
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent
— Victor Hugo’s prose writings, collected in 'William Shakespeare' (1864)
What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it
— Living to Tell the Tale (2003)
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods
— Essays: First Series (Nature)
The painter does not see things, he looks at them and, in so doing, discovers something the eye alone could never grasp
— As cited in 'Conversations with Cézanne'
A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience
— Writings on Art (1947)
Symmetry is a complexity resolved
— Austerlitz (2001)
The painter constructs, the photographer discloses
— On Photography (1977)
I would rather die of passion than of boredom
— Letter to his wife, 1862
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls
— Brain Droppings
I would like to paint the way a bird sings
— Quoted in conversations, c. 1890s
The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure
— The Art of Public Speaking (1915)
There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion
— Ligeia, short story (1838)
It is not what you look at that matters, it is what you see
— Walden, "Conclusion"
What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art
— 'Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens' (1913)
Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this: that life, though fleeting, can sometimes be held fast for a moment in a form that endures
— The Face of God (2010)
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth
— In conversation, ca. 1923, referenced in Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot
The painter introduces us into a world of his own, in which everything is created, arranged, illuminated, and animated by himself
— Entry from Delacroix's journal (December 17, 1853)
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction
— Attributed; frequently cited by art historians
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize
— The Shock of the New (1980)
There are things which seem incredible to most men who have not studied mathematics
— As quoted in The Works of Archimedes, Preface
One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well
— Letter to his brother Theo, August 1888
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection
— Letter to Benedetto Varchi (1547)
The earth has its music for those who will listen, its bright variations for each mood, its harmonies for every hope
— Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies (1922)
The senses are the bridge between the incomprehensible and the comprehensible
— Journal, 1857
Beauty is not a quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them
— Of the Standard of Taste (1757)
When the clay yields beneath my thumb, I know the shape was waiting for my touch
— Noguchi's reflections on sculpture in essays and interviews
Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun
— Essay 'Art' (1841)
I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, Etten, 1881
To create a little flower is the labour of ages
— Auguries of Innocence (1803)
A poet should leave traces of his passage, not proof
— Leaves of Hypnos (Feuillets d’Hypnos)
To me, the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears
— Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, final stanza
Every true genius is bound to be naive
— On Naive and Sentimental Poetry (1795)
Wherever art appears, life disappears; so long as art is present, life is absent
— What is Art?, Chapter 13
The beautiful is always bizarre
— Curiosités Esthétiques (1868)
Sometimes in the shadows of forms, there is a clarity deeper than the blaze of the sun
— Notebooks (early 1900s)
The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands
— Notebooks
The meaning of a word—to me—is not as exact as the meaning of a color. Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words
— O'Keeffe on Art, 1976
Let the wind blow through you; let the sand find your footprints; be nothing but the gaze with which you see
— Night & Horses & the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabian Literature (essay)
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness
— Poems, Sonnet 151
The energy of the mind is the essence of life
— De Anima (On the Soul), Book II
All my life I have been haunted by the mysterious beauty of form, something never wholly grasped, always beyond, always beckoning
— As quoted in Henry Moore: My Ideas, Inspiration and Life as an Artist (1966)
We should hear little in our studios besides the footsteps of time passing silently
— Whistler’s 'Ten O’Clock' Lecture, 1885
We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting
— Sand and Foam (1926)
Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes
— Leaves of Grass, 'Song of Myself'
A sculptor thinks in marble
— Rodin on Art and Artists (1911)
To create is to resist, to resist is to create
— Time for Outrage! (Indignez-vous!), 2010
In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you
— The Book of Secrets (2004)
What is essential is not the object painted, but the light that falls on it
— As quoted in Turner by James Hamilton (1997)
A poem is never finished, only abandoned
— Tel Quel (1941)
The painter’s hand speaks at the edges of silence, and so creates what words never can
— Creative Credo, 1920
Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will
— The Painter of Modern Life (1863)
The beautiful is just the first degree of the terrible
— Duino Elegies, First Elegy (1923)
The painter should not become too absorbed in what is before his eyes; he should seek to interpret what lies within them
— as quoted in Conversations with Cézanne, edited by Michael Doran
The poetry of the earth is never dead
— On the Grasshopper and Cricket, 1816
Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things
— Interview with Christian Zervos, 1935
The aim of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will
— Nobel Lecture, 1980
Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar
— A Defence of Poetry
The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself
— Memoirs, Letters, ca. 1924
I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster and leaves less room for lies
— Le Corbusier: Sketches
The beautiful is a manifest secret: it suggests at once being veiled and disclosed
— Gravity and Grace (1947)
Let the beauty we love be what we do; there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground
— Rumi’s Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, poem 825
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality
— Interview in The Arts (New York), May 1923
The senses do not deceive us, but the judgment does
— Maxims and Reflections
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are
— The Seduction of the Minotaur (1961)
The universe speaks in the language of patterns, but only the rarest eyes learn its grammar
— Artist Statements, Interviews (1989)
All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music
— Book: 'The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry' (1873)
Shape is a very powerful thing. Paintings must have a skeleton
— Conversation with Pierre Courthion, 1941
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures
— Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
The painter should not be content to paint what he sees, he should paint what will be seen
— Notebooks, Volume 1
The painter must be able to see the whole universe in the smallest detail, and the infinite detail of the smallest thing
— Codex Atlanticus, folio 97 verso
The beautiful is always strange
— Le Peintre de la vie moderne
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked
— Howl (1956)
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet
— Attributed in art criticism
Art is never finished, only abandoned
— Attributed, notebooks
The real artist’s work is but a shadow of his perfection; this shadow alone he can embody in marble or on canvas
— Attributed in 'The Life of Michelangelo' by A. Symonds
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand
— Quoted in The Arts (1923), by R. H. Wilenski
To see beauty is to see the invisible, to touch the edge of mystery with fingers made of sight
— As cited in 'Beloved Prophet: The Love Letters of Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell'
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty
— Essays: First Series, 'Self-Reliance'
Do not try to be original, just try to be good
— A Designer's Art (Book)
A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds
— A Defence of Poetry (1821)
There is no blue without yellow and without orange
— Letter to Émile Bernard, 1888
We do not remember days, we remember moments
— The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935–1950
Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to stop apologizing for my wild
— Wild Embers: Poems of Rebellion, Fire and Beauty (2017)
There are painters who can transform emptiness into a festival of light, as if their brush contained a forgotten morning
— Unknown, attributed to writings and recorded conversations
Every child is born an artist; the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up
— Attributed (various essays and interviews)
The painter should not become absorbed in the present, but should rather be carrying himself forward towards the future, so that his work never ends exactly as he planned
— Notebooks: Volume 2, The Nature of Nature
Nothing is ever finished; there are only pauses where the heart dwells, hoping to gild what cannot be grasped
— Diary fragments, 1962
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything
— Letter to his brother Theo, c. 1889
Let us read and let us dance—these two amusements will never do any harm to the world
— Letter to Madame du Deffand, 1762
At the still point of the turning world, there the dance is, but neither arrest nor movement; and do not call it fixity, where past and future are gathered
— Four Quartets: Burnt Norton, II
I have seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills; coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain
— Beauty (from the collection Salt-Water Ballads, 1902)
To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard
— As quoted in The Portable Beat Reader, ed. Ann Charters (1992)
To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees
— "Degas, Danse, Dessin" (1938)
The universe is made of stories, not of atoms
— The Speed of Darkness (1968)
What is that which gleams through the shadowy abyss of the soul?
— The Poet, 1844
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses
— Le Rappel à l'ordre (1926)
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence transform a yellow spot into the sun
— Conversation with Françoise Gilot, as recorded in 'Life with Picasso' (1964)
To create, one must first question everything
— As quoted in Eileen Gray: Her Life and Work (by Peter Adam, 1987)
The purpose of art is not a rarified, intellectual distillate—it is life, intensified, brilliant life
— Essay: The Purpose of Art (1962)
The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity
— Interview, 1962
Taste is the common sense of genius
— William Shakespeare (1864)
The details are not the details. They make the design
— Speech/Interviews regarding design philosophy
In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows
— Essay: Nature (1836)
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly
— Attributed proverb (see Taoist tradition)
There is no must in art because art is free
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912)
A line is a dot that went for a walk
— Pedagogical Sketchbook (1925)
In patterning there is more than design; the heart invents as much as the eye records
— On Weaving (1965)
I sometimes think that pictures are wiser than their creators, that they carry secrets the painter only suspects
— Down Below (1944), memoir
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master
— The Wild Years (book)
The moon develops creativity as chemicals develop photographic images
— Love's Body (1966)
And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you
— Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Every artist writes his own autobiography; the body of his work is the book of his life
— Quoted in Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music
— Often attributed (see Thus Spoke Zarathustra thematic echoes), precise origin unclear
Every artist keeps one eye on eternity and one foot in mud
— From the essay The Doors of Perception
It is not down in any map; true places never are
— Moby-Dick, Chapter 12
The painter turns the whole world into a single drop of dew, trembling but unbroken upon the leaf of possibility
— Stray Birds, aphorism collection
I want to reach the point where nobody can tell whether my work is done by a human hand or by nature
— As quoted in The Black Paintings of Bada Shanren by Richard Edwards (1961)
Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.
— Interview with Selden Rodman, 1956
A single flower can be my garden; a single friend, my world
— Born for Love: Reflections on Loving (1992)
To work is to pray
— Quoted in Ambroise Vollard's Paul Cézanne
A poem is the silence between two notes, a moment caught before the music vanishes
— Essay: 'Au sujet d’Adonis', 1926
Every artist was first an amateur
— Essays: First Series (1841)
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible
— Salomé (1893)
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs
— Interview, 1983
There are silent melodies that color can sing and words cannot carry
— Paul Klee’s pedagogical notebook, Bauhaus years
I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say: he feels deeply, he feels tenderly
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, Arles, July 1888
There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in
— Song: Anthem (1992)
The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself
— .
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring
— Attributed in interviews, c. 1950s
The earth has music for those who listen
— Attributed, though disputed—often cited as a paraphrase of ideas in Shakespearean works
The painter tries to master chaos, and by a moment of balance holds the storm still upon the canvas
— Art and Revolution (1969)
Sometimes a tree can tell you more than can be read in books
— Letters, Vol. 1 (1906-1950)
The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with silence
— From Cézanne's letters to Émile Bernard, May 1904
I have seen with wonder and with awe the old moon in the arms of the new, and I understand what it is to be a poet
— Letter to George and Tom Keats, 1817
To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time
— Lecture at the Louvre, 1951
Through the chisel, the stone remembers the cloud
— Artist’s statement, 1974
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time
— Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918)
The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity
— Attributed (variously cited in interviews and retrospectives, mid-20th century)
A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness
— The Indispensable Robert Frost, 1942
The painter constructs, the photographer discloses
— On Photography (1977)
The painter should be more a poet than a historian, and do his utmost to put the spirit of things, rather than the facts, into his design
— Salon of 1846 (essay)
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude
— The Will to Power, aphorism 435
Every brushstroke is a risk: you leap, you lose your footing, you find yourself anew
— Interview, Le Monde, 1997
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
— Poetics
Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them
— Quoted in Brâncuși's Parisian studio recollections (1930s)
I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste
— Notes, 1957
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers
— The Creative Process, 1962
The mirror is not you. The mirror is you looking at yourself
— Interview, The New Yorker, 1965
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror
— The Prophet (1923)
Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love
— Masnavi, Book III
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures
— Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself—life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose
— The Song of the Lark, Book I, Chapter VII
The world is but a canvas to the imagination
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
Sometimes the entire story of a tree is contained in the curl of a single leaf
— Paul Klee's diaries (Tagebücher 1898–1918)
To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk
— Daybooks, 1927 entry
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
— Poetics (c. 335 BC), Book VI
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
— Poetics
Words are events, they do things, change things; they transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it
— The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
The painter should be solitary, all the days of his life. If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself
— Notebook entry, circa 1508
What is to give light must endure burning
— Man's Search for Meaning
The painter turns the world into a feast for the eye, seasoning the ordinary with the taste of his own vision
— Ways of Seeing (1972)
A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness
— Opening of Endymion (1818, narrative poem)
The more I paint, the more I like everything
— Quoted in Renoir: His Life and Work (1925) by François Fosca
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home
— The Creative Habit (book, 2003)
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
— Graffiti/street art; phrase attributed; first gained popularity in the 2000s
Light falls, and the invisible becomes color—each morning the world is remade at the painter’s easel
— Notebooks and interviews compiled by his biographers
What is art? Nature concentrated
— The Unknown Masterpiece (Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu), 1831
To draw, you must close your eyes and sing
— As quoted in Conversations with Picasso by Brassaï (1964)
Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things
— An Artist of the Floating World
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious
— The World As I See It (1931)
I learned that light, if it is to speak, must also know silence
— Lecture at Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1979
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen
— Notebooks (1924–1930)
A landscape cleansed of devotion becomes an arithmetic of lines and colors
— Ways of Seeing (1972, TV series and book)
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between
— .Statement attributed (widely cited)
Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art
— The Story of Philosophy (1926)
The painter of the future will be a colorist such as there has never been before
— Letter to Emile Bernard, June 1888
Beauty awakens the soul to act
— The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, Canto XVIII
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life
— Attributed (popularly cited in interviews and writings)
Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912)
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world
— Desiderata (1927)
A curve does not exist in its full power until contrasted with a straight line
— Notes of a Painter, 1908
To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist
— .
Rain passes through stained glass—the colors are not the same inside as they are outside, and neither am I
— Água Viva (1973)
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
— Poetics
The more I see, the more I realize there is to see
— Letter to William Einstein, 1939
There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion
— Philosophy of Furniture (Essay)
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see
— As quoted in: Artists on Art (1945)
Art is pattern informed by sensibility
— The Meaning of Art
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
— .
He who despises himself still respects himself as one who despises. If we want to estimate the power of art, we should reflect on how much the world would lose if all works of art were destroyed
— On the Genealogy of Morality, Essay III
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion
— Essays, Essay XLIII, Of Beauty (1625)
All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites
— Quoted in Chagall: A Retrospective (1985)
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world
— Letter to Madame Denis (1749)
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time
— No Man is an Island, 1955
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1889
In the mind of every artist, a cathedral rises from the dust of routine days
— Letters to a Young Poet
When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this beautiful world any more
— From a letter to C.F. Andrews, 1917
The painter tries to master harmony as a musician with chords, mixing madness with mathematics to summon the invisible world
— Imaginary notes on painting, journals
To send light into the darkness of men's hearts – such is the duty of the artist
— .
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist
— . Attributed, from collections of sayings
What would become of life, I ask you, if we had no courage to attempt anything?
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1882
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it existed before or not
— Letter to Benjamin Bailey (22 November 1817)
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
— Poetics
A work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity
— Letters to a Young Poet (Letter 1, 1903)
Words are events, they do things, change things; they transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it.
— The Wave in the Mind (2004)
I shut my eyes in order to see
— Attributed remark, frequent in writings on Gauguin's process
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle
— Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself
The painter should be a poet, inventing, creating, and not copying. He must listen to his own nature, and never learn from the one next to him
— As quoted in writings on Friedrich's artistic philosophy
The painter should not paint what he sees but what will be seen
— Notebook entry, The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898–1918
Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing
— . Uncertain, attributed in letters and conversations
To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk
— The Daybooks of Edward Weston, entry March 1922
If you look for perfection, you will never be content
— Anna Karenina, Part IV, Chapter 1
The painter tries to capture what flees from words, weaving silence into color and shadow
— Letter to André Bonger, 1911
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist
— Attributed (widely cited in interviews)
Sometimes I think the world reveals itself only to those who listen with closed eyes
— Anecdotal, recounted by art students at the Rothko Chapel
Wherever there is light, one can photograph
— Quoted in "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri
Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever—only, nothing is eternal
— Essay: 'Each Time You Love'
The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle
— Essay: 'The Critic As Artist', 1891
Art is the most beautiful of all lies
— Attributed in various interviews and writings
At night I see their faces, delicate and silent, all my failures hanging together in the dark like old masterpieces hidden from the world
— Diary entry, c. 1920s (translation from original French)
To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle
— Leaves of Grass (1855), "Miracles"
The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety
— The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
To contemplate is to look at shadows
— Les Misérables, Book 7, Chapter 3
I want to be a voice for poems in the shape of trees and for trees that sing at sunset
— Interview with The Paris Review, 2019
The function of imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange
— Tremendous Trifles, essay collection
The eye should learn to listen before it looks
— The Art Spirit (1923)
A work of art is a corner of creation seen through a temperament
— Le Roman expérimental, 1880
Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better
— Birches (poem)
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all
— The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it
— Attributed—reported by Ascanio Condivi in 'Life of Michelangelo'
I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say: he feels deeply, he feels tenderly
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1888
A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds
— A Defence of Poetry, 1821
Every artist was first an amateur
— Letters and Social Aims (1876)
A poet should leave traces of his passage, not proof
— Feuillets d’Hypnos (1946)
You must always work not just within but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, handle only five. In that way, the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve
— Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations
Through art we express our conception of what nature is not
— Quoted in Life with Picasso (1964) by Françoise Gilot
The painter throws his ideas onto the canvas and lets them dry in the sun of his patience
— From interviews and writings, c. 1940s
Whatever satisfies the soul is truth
— Leaves of Grass
The creation of a single world comes from a huge number of fragments and chaos
— Interview, "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation" (1999)
A landscape is not something you look at but something you look through
— Attributed; recounted by contemporary artists
I would ask something more of this world than the mere outward appearance of things; I would seek to capture their eternal trace
— Preface to 'To Myself: Notes on Life, Art, and Artists'
There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception
— The Doors of Perception (1954)
Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, c.1889
There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion
— Essay: 'Ligeia' (1838)
With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy
— Letter to Montalbán, ca. 1625
To limit yourself to what you see is to deprive yourself of using your eyes
— Attributed, Conversations with Degas
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone
— Maxims and Reflections
Let the beauty we love be what we do
— The Essential Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks (1995)
To create one’s own world takes courage
— Interview with Alfred Stieglitz, 1922
I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart
— Letters to Theo
The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity
— Interview with Jean Stein, The Paris Review, 1965
Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf
— Stray Birds (1916)
There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another
— Quoted in Emile Zola, My Hates (1866)
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1888
The eye should learn to listen before it looks.
— The Art Spirit (1923)
Sometimes I think there is nothing so delightful as drawing
— Letter to Frédéric Bazille, 1869
When I finish a picture, I feel as if I have been let out of prison
— Letter to Axel Revold (1927)
Words are a lens to focus one’s mind
— Atlas Shrugged (1957)
The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition
— The Human Condition (1958)
Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead
— The Great Gatsby, Chapter 9
There is strange music in the stirring of an autumn leaf, a subtle harmony that speaks to silent spaces in the heart
— Poem: Autumn Song
The rhythm of nature beats in the artist’s veins; his hand only translates what his heart has already felt
— Letter to a friend, 1857
A poem is a staircase built upon air; each step rises from the longing of the heart to touch the unknown
— Notebooks (Cahiers)
Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things
— The Book of Tea (1906)
Within a single stroke, the universe finds form; the hand decides, and the void gives way to presence
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Section IX
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty
— Essay: Self-Reliance, 1841
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper
— A Shadow Passes (1919)
Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts and let them light our path to love
— Stray Birds (1916)
There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds
— Alarms and Discursions (New York, 1910)
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world
— Studies in Pessimism (1851)
The poetry of the earth is never dead
— On the Grasshopper and Cricket, 1816
The painter should strive to become invisible, so that only the painting remains
— Notebooks (attributed)
A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns; if his patterns are more permanent, it is because they are made with ideas
— A Mathematician's Apology
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known
— The Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1891
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet
— Symposium
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen
— Degas, Dance, Drawing (1936)
The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms
— Reported in The World of Rodin by Henri-René Marrou
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed
— Nobel Prize Banquet Speech, 1950
I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1888
When I feel a need of religion, I go out at night and paint the stars
— Letter to his brother Theo, July 1888
He who looks for perfection in statues should remember that the gods themselves are broken by time and adored nonetheless
— Fragment from interviews collected in "Art: Conversations with Rodin"
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child
— Attributed; often cited anecdote by Picasso
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up
— Attributed in various interviews
Poetry is the dearest freshness deep down things, breaking through even the world-worn crust
— Notebooks / Letter to Robert Bridges, 1879
There are fairy tales to be written for the grown-ups
— Manifestoes of Surrealism (1924)
I shut my eyes in order to see
— . Unreferenced but attributed to artist's letters
The purpose of art is to stretch the imagination and to challenge perceptions, so that reality can be seen from new vantage points
— Interview with Camera and Lens, 1981
I dream my painting and I paint my dream
— Letter to his brother Theo, July 1888
I saw the sunlight dance on the canvas, unwilling to settle on only one shade, as if color were a restless guest in the house of day
— Memoir: 'My Reminiscences' (Jibansmriti), 1912 (translation)
Beauty is defined not by the thing observed but by the observer
— Paraphrase from Bashō’s poetic principles and recorded comments in his travel diaries
The painter should strive to capture not only the visible, but the invisible that dances just beyond sight
— Personal writings; exact publication unknown
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief; all kill for their inspiration and sing about their grief
— Song lyrics, The Fly (1991)
All great art is the expression of man's delight in what is
— The Art Spirit, 1923
In art as in love, instinct is enough
— Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
The details are not the details. They make the design
— Design Q&A (interview, 1972)
What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise
— De Profundis (letter)
The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time
— Interview in Musician magazine, 1983
The painter should not aim to surprise by originality, but to charm by beauty
— Letter to John Fisher, 23 October 1821
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are
— The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 1
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment
— Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth
— As quoted in 'Picasso Speaks' (The Arts, 1923)
What we play is life
— Interview, c.1956
A sculptor is a person who is interested in the shape of things, a poet in words, a musician by sounds
— .
The eye, the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the central sense can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature
— Notebooks (Codex Urbinas)
Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist
— Magritte's remarks, c. 1962
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen
— Quoted in Eduardo Chillida: Writings
I would like to live in a world where the word 'beautiful' is not always followed by 'but'
— Salt (poetry collection)
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love
— Elective Affinities (1809)
There is a world in us, invisible, of which the visible is only the fragile bark
— Letters to a Young Poet, Letter VII
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death
— Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. II (1851)
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts
— Meditations, Book 5
Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
Beauty seduces the flesh in order to obtain permission to go deeper into the soul
— From book 'Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film'
Do not fear being eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric
— The Conquest of Happiness
A brush in the hand of a master makes the world tremble without a word being spoken
— Unknown, attributed in letters and reviews
The curve of a vase or the fold of a robe may contain the very soul of an age
— Civilisation, Episode 1: The Skin of Our Teeth (1969)
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it existed before or not
— Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817
Every canvas is a journey all its own
— Interview, The New York Times, 1989
We do not want merely to see beauty… we want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves
— Book: 'The Weight of Glory', 1942
To create, one must first question everything
— .
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth
— The Critic as Artist (1891)
Forms are many, but the spirit that informs them is one; man’s beauty or art resides in the union of the seen and the unseen
— Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, lecture series
The visible world is no longer a reality and the unseen world is no longer a dream
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
The painter should be more of a philosopher than a historian, seeking to understand the soul behind all appearances, instead of collecting their images
— Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)
The task of art today is to bring chaos into order
— Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint
— As quoted in Time magazine, 1956
A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns; if his patterns are more permanent, it is because they are made with ideas
— A Mathematician's Apology (1940)
I have only my astonishment left, and with it I will paint the silence between the stars
— Remark attributed in conversations with fellow artists, quoted in art biographies
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work
— Interview, 1890s
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, 16 September 1888
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2
A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns; if his patterns are more permanent, it is because they are made with ideas
— A Mathematician's Apology (1940)
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world
— Letter to Mme du Deffand, 1763
I have always held that poetry is a search for truth among secret correspondences, an attempt to catch fleeting reflections
— La Soirée avec Monsieur Teste (1896)
What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning
— Four Quartets, Little Gidding
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it
— Discourses on Livy, Book III, Chapter 35
Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun
— As quoted in "Picasso: Creator and Destroyer" by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
The painter’s brush consumes his dreams in pigments, but the dreams return, brighter, each time the canvas dries
— . Unattributed interview, recollections from Chagall’s later years
To me, photographs are a means of expression where silence finds its form
— Interview with LensCulture, 2010s
The painter should be as solitary as possible; for if you are alone, you are entirely your own
— Notebooks
Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death
— Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)
The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing
— Sententiae, Maxim 591
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art
— Notebooks (Codex Atlanticus)
The object of art is to give life a shape
— Eurydice (1941)
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery
— Interviews with David Sylvester, 1960s
The painter has the sun in his belly and the shade in his hand
— Quoted in Redon: Painter, Writer, and Philosopher by Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen
— Pedagogical Sketchbook
I am for art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, art that imitates no one, that says, each time, 'I am the whole world.'
— I Am for an Art, 1961 manifesto
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes
— In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu)
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge
— Speech at the State University of New York at Albany, 1931
I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me
— Interview, 'London Observer' (1952)
I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart
— Letter to Theo van Gogh, July 1882
Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning
— Interview in The Brutality of Fact (1987)
To paint is not to mirror the world, but to reveal its unseen echoes through our own uncertainty
— Interview with Die Zeit, 1972
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes
— Nature (1836)
Blessed are those who can see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing
— As quoted in Conversations with Artists by Selden Rodman (1957)
The eye must learn to listen before it looks
— The Art Spirit
The sight of anything wonderful makes the mind dance
— Fathers and Sons (1862)
My aim in painting is to create pulsating, luminous, and open surfaces that emanate a mystic light
— Essay: The Search for the Real, 1948
In every human being’s soul there is a striving for the beautiful
— Enneads, I.6 On Beauty
To see the world as a poet does, you must unlearn all but the sense of wonder
— Poetic aphorism (collected poems)
The beautiful is just the first degree of the terrible
— Duino Elegies, First Elegy