Ben Harper Quotes

I like the pop music, but I still want to have meaning in my music.

Through acting and film, I felt that my life had a sense to it. I felt I had a mission.

How shall we live so as to have the consciousness of not having lived in vain?

This thing that I do with caring about the message in my music, it's not separate from my work as a commercial artist; they're totally one and the same. I'm always going to be thinking about what my voice means.

As an artist, I feel that my father's biggest influence is me realizing that music has a purpose and it's not just for business and that music is spiritual. I get that from him that music is a spiritual thing.

~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~

The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you live. And most people are concerned about growing old rather than being effective.

I paint for the sole purpose of magnifying the privilege of being alive.

Make yourself useful, not just on a day to day basis, but as a lifetime thing.

He asked if i wouldn't like to live completely without problems, say in greece maybe, nice climate, everything provided? i say: "when we find out what we are actually doing and who we actually are, that is the point of living...it may be only a few seconds...a few seconds of significant actions, out of a lifetime.

I am in the world only for the purpose of composing.

The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

The blank space can be humbling. But I've faced it my whole professional life. It's my job. It's also my calling. Bottom line: Filling this empty space constitutes my identity.

The purpose of art is to re-present nature, not represent it.

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows it to realize its supreme purpose through him.

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is love, laughter, and work.

The purpose of truly transcendent art is to express something you are not yet, but something that you can become.

You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.

The end-purpose of all art is enjoyment!

Painting doesn't have a function, not in the way that music or film does... I mean, you can dance to music. Music can be used for a soundtrack, so it has a function in that sense, beyond itself. But painting doesn't... But I do believe that painting has a purpose.

The purpose of art is to console and amuse—myself, and, I hope, others.

The purpose of art ... is not to reflect life but to organize it, to build it.

Focus not on doing less or doing more but on doing what you value.

The Arts are man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.

Artists and writers have to understand and live the truth that what we are doing is nourishing the world.