Joseph Beuys Quotes

Man is made to create, from the poet to the potter.

We are creators, just like the one who created us. And we are always expressing our creativity, with or without awareness.

All men are creative but few are artists.

Very few people are accepted as creative: A few painters, a few poets - one in a million. This is foolish! Every human being is a born creator. Watch children and you will see: all children are creative. By and by, we destroy their creativity.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

I'm an artist in my heart.

The artist in me welcomes another opportunity to be creative.

I don't understand how people live without creating.

Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)

There is an ocean of creativity within every human being.

Creativity is absolutely for everyone. I firmly believe this. I think if you're the driest accountant with the plastic pocket pen protector it's in how you interact with the world. There is artistry in everything that we do and there is expression in everything that we do.

A citizen sticks to conventions, does whatever is social. Artists, of course, must reject all conventions. I see no differently in reconciling the best of both of these worlds.

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

I think there's a deep impulse in most humans to do creative stuff, whether that's music or art, photography or writing. Most people at some point in their life say they want to do something creative - they want to be an actor, a director, a writer, a poet, a painter or whatever.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

God has given us an imagination, and our imagination is really the principle tool from which all creativity and artistry comes from.

Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.

I want to create. I think that's the one word I can grow on.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?

As long as you're true to you, you believe it and you make others believe it, then what you're doing is just art. If you give everybody a blank canvas and some paint, not everybody's picture is going to be exactly the same, but it's still art. I just do what I do.

Somebody informed me recently that the key to every art, from writing to gardening to sculpture, is creativity. I beg to differ.

I believe in creative work.

Every man is an artist.

Art makes us human, music makes us human, and I deeply feel that science makes us human.