Mary Renault Quotes

I don't think anyone has a right to possess anything he doesn't love - art or anything else.

Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.

I collect antiques. Why? Because they're beautiful.

A real collector does not sell.

If you have a Stradivarius and nobody to play it, it's just a Stradivarius. Or is it even that? It's nothing.

To me, the simplest things can have the highest value.

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.

Do you think it is only a little thing to possess a house from which lovely things can be seen?

I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.

I believe that what we call beautiful is generally a by-product.

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it.

I have always known what I wanted, and that was beauty... in every form.

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

Something that is yours forever is never precious

The real and proper question is: why is it beautiful?

I wanted the light to be the revelation. It has to do with what we value. I want people to treasure light.

Beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

Beautiful rocks - beautiful grass Beautiful soil where they both combine Beautiful river - covering sky Never thought of possession, but all this was mine.

Perfection is no more a requisite to art than to heroes. Frigidaires are perfect. Beauty limps. My frigidaire has had to be replaced.

The things which belong to others please us more, and that which is ours, is more pleasing to others

The more perfect the approximation to truth, the more perfect is art.

All my life I've pursued the perfect red.

The sea is not a bargain basement.

Every masterpiece is just dirt and ash put together in some perfect way.

I have loved the principle of beauty in all things.