Andre Breton Quotes

You can only be free as an artist if you're free as a person.

No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist.

Freeing oneself from words is liberation.

I believe all of us should have the freedom to have our personal take on how art affects us.

The mere word freedom is the only one that still excites me. I deem it capable of indefinitely sustaining the old human fanaticism. It doubtless satisfies my only legitimate aspiration. Among all the many misfortunes to which we are heir, it is only fair to admit that we are allowed the greatest degree of freedom of thought. It is up to us not to misuse it. To reduce the imagination to a state of slavery-even though it would mean the elimination of what is commonly called happiness-is to betray all sense of absolute justice within oneself.

Whoever feels the amount of interest in the government of his country which befits a freeman, has some convictions on national affairs which are like his life-blood; which the strength of his belief in their truth, together with the importance he attaches to them, forbid him to make a subject of compromise, or postpone to the judgment of any person, however greatly his superior.

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women?

Leaving Def Jam was kind of a blessing in disguise because we can make whatever record we want.

I'm lucky enough to exist in 2018, where I have a record label that's like, 'Write whatever you want to write.' I don't have to hide anything.

I'm not going to restrict myself as an artist.

Saroj Kumar is a fictitious character who is free to think anything.

I do not want to be restricted to a particular image.

We can't stop people from thinking what they want to.

Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.

Do you call yourself Free? It is your ruling thought that I would hear, and not that you have escaped from a yoke.

Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained.

Experience through freedom is the only means to arrive at the truth and the best solutions; and there is no freedom if there is not the freedom to be wrong.

By physical liberty I mean the right to do anything which does not interfere with the happiness of another. By intellectual liberty I mean the right to think and the right to think wrong.

Men's consciences ought in no sort to be violated, urged, or constrained. And whenever men have attempted any thing by this violent course, whether openly or by secret means, the issue has been pernicious, and the cause of great and wonderful innovations in the principallest and mightiest kingdoms and countries.

If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God; the safety of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God do enter into that man with justice.

Artistic imagination must remain free. It is by definition free from any fidelity to circumstances, especially to the intoxicating circumstances of history.

Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.

For instance, I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that's how I see life. I'm interested in art, poetry, and music. As that kind of artist, I can do anything. I can say anything. It's about self-expression. It knows no package - there's no such thing. That's what being an artist is.

Art is a spiritual function of man, which aims at freeing him from life's chaos. Art is free in the use of its means in any way it likes, but is bound to its laws and to its laws alone. The minute it becomes art, it becomes much more sublime than a class distinction between proletariat and bourgeoisie.