Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Painting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed, at its aspect everyone may create romance at the will of his imagination, and at a glance have his soul invaded by the most profound memories, no efforts of memory, everything summed up in one moment. Complete art which sums up all the others and completes them.

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

Art, it is said, is not a mirror, but a hammer: it does not reflect, it shapes.

The language of art is a 'parabolic' language, with a special openness to the universal: the 'Way of Beauty' is a way capable of leading the mind and heart to the Lord, to elevate them to the heights of God.

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.

On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters.

The affairs of music ought, somehow, to terminate in the love of the beautiful.

I believe that art has incredible power.

Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

The arts can bring the heart to the aid of the head, the personal to the political.

I know when I watch certain actors or if I watch Thom Yorke sing on stage, I'm affected by it emotionally. I guess that's what we are all striving for in art but that's such a beautiful thing that happens between two people that may never even meet. So when you do get to meet someone who was affected in that way, it's awesome.

"A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and the artist."

Man is apt to be more moved by the art of his own period, not because it is more perfect, but because it is organically related to him.

Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life.

The aim of art is to create space.

Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is the recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the inter-relations of these.

Love and art do not embrace what is beautiful but what is made beautiful by this embrace.

Art can compel people freely, gladly, and spontaneously to sacrifice themselves in the service of man.

It is the medium, or the specific configuration of the medium, that we call a work of art that brings feeling into being.

The justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations.

I have always believed that art should be a deep pleasure. I think there is a contradiction in an art of total despair, because the very fact that the art is made seems to contradict despair.

Art always penetrates the particular fissures in one's psychic life.

I think that experiencing through art is a wonderful way to expand the horizon and everything around it.