Ai Weiwei Quotes

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.

Beautiful things, when taste is formed, are obviously and unaccountably beautiful.

Well, beauty's in the eye of the beholder... It's all subjective. I'm kind of shy about it, but I'll take it.

In all judgements by which we describe anything as beautiful, we allow no one to be of another opinion.

Music is subjective to everyone's unique experience.

If a given combination of trees, mountains, water, and houses, say a landscape, is beautiful, it is not so by itself, but because of me, of my favor, of the idea or feeling I attach to it.

Beauty is whatever anyone thinks is beautiful.

People strive to achieve a certain form of perfection constantly and it's impossible because it's a form of opinion. I can think someone is pretty but the person next to me can think that they're unattractive.

Liking is not always the child of beauty; but whatsoever is liked, to the liker is beautiful.

The paintings of Francis Bacon to my eye are very beautiful. The paintings of Bosch or Goya are to my eye very beautiful. I've also stood in front of those same paintings with people who've said, 'let's get on to the Botticellis as soon as possible.' I have lingered, of course.

I don't happen to like pretty things. I don't like pretty dresses. I like more attractive. I like people that look a little bit more offbeat. I don't like the classic pretty face. That doesn't mean it's not pretty or it's not wonderful, and most people don't agree with me, but that's the way I think.

It is impossible that beauty should ever distinctly appreciate itself.

I obviously have a different connection to each song in a different way, and they all mean something different to me.

It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their own eyes and ears.

Beauty is where you find it.

People think they know the mystery of living in your skin. They don't. There's no one who knows except the person who carts it around her own self.

There can be many opinions on a thing, but there is only one truth." Vashet smiled lazily. "And if the pursuit of the truth was my goal, that would concern me." She gave a long yawn, stretching like a happy cat. "Instead I will focus on the joy in my heart, [...}

My album to me is something, but anyone who buys it, it's whatever it is to them. I don't like telling people what specifics are of the record, because that could ruin it as an experience for someone else.

For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don't.

Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.

The world is nothing but my perception of it. I see only through myself. I hear only through the filter of my story.

Reality is not so much what happens to us; rather, it is how we think about those events that create the reality we experience. In a very real sense, this means that we each create the reality in which we live.

...[I am] utterly entranced, at times, with the mere fact that there are other people, and that they experience themselves as the primary center of consciousness just as I do. That fact alone...Well, that fact alone is staggering.

A good song to one person could just be something mediocre to somebody else. It's always strange thinking about how songs connect with people.