George Santayana Quotes

The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited.

Art is an infinitely precious good, a draught both refreshing and cheering which restores the stomach and the mind to the natural equilibrium of the ideal.

The arts open your heart and mind to possibilities that are limitless. They are pathways that touch upon our brains and emotions and bring sustenance to imagination. Human beings' greatest form of communication, they walk in tandem with science and play, and best describe what it is to be human.

For me, art is always a kind of theater.

Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment.

That's what art is. You don't make up stories. You live your life.

I still hope that more people can create art, even though artistic genres may never be the most popular or money-making genres. But the thing is, I think art is more long-lasting. It stays in people, and it changes them.

Art, in other words, betrays a sexy mental fitness.

Photography is a bridge between science and art. It brings to science what it needs most, the artistic sense, and to art the proof that nothing can be imagined which cannot be matched in the counterpoints of nature.

A world without poetry and art would be too much like one without birds or flowers: bearable but a lot less enjoyable.

What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.

The artist's job? To be a miracle worker: make the blind see, the dull feel, the dead to live.

Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't.

Art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul.

We started to confuse entertainment with art, because art has a component of entertainment. It has to have that or it becomes too boring. It becomes too lost in its own devices. But I just think that we started to lose, and even before that, it's not necessary.

Art is indeed not the bread but the wine of life.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

a work that intends to be art must first be entertaining.

Art... does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.

What do artists do? Artists give people something they didn't know they were missing: a dance, a piece of music, a painting, a piece of sculpture. Catering to that need is the best business strategy.

From music and dance to painting and sculpting, the arts allow us to explore new worlds and to view life from another perspective. They also encourage individuals to sharpen their skills and to nurture their imagination and intellect.

Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is work of enlightenment. Art, in other words, is a technique for acquiring liberty.

Art is man's refuge from adversity.

I don't how I can describe the quality that is only found in art (be it music, literature, painting, or whatever), this quality, it's just there, and it endures.

The fine arts, both in those who cultivate and those only who admire them, open and expand the mind to great ideas. They inspire liberal feelings, create a harmony of temper, favorable to a sense of justice and a habit of moderation in our social intercourse.