David Grinspoon Quotes

It is not ignorance but knowledge which is the mother of wonder.

Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.

To us, the value of a work lies in its newness: the invention of new forms, or a novel combination of old forms, the discovery of unknown worlds or the exploration of unfamiliar areas in worlds already discovered - revelations, surprises.

It's not at all naturally human to see something like the Grand Canyon as beautiful.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

When at last I took the time to look into the heart of a flower, it opened up a whole new world; a world where every country walk would be an adventure, where every garden would become an enchanted one.

If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types on this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth there.

It's always good to have a world that people don't know about - a world that hasn't yet been done. It's like treading on fresh snow. You're the first one there.

The world is not yet exhausted: let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

You go to new places and it opens your eyes to different things you haven't seen before. Everything from colors, to silhouettes, to patterns - it just comes from everywhere.

I am always trying to do something new and different. The first step is curiosity, questions. You pay attention to what fascinates you. If you can't shake it, there is something there.

There are the most fantastic, beautiful things and people out there. It’s up to you to find them.

We should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.

Taste is, in general, considered as that faculty of the human mind by which we perceive and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in the works of nature or art.

I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents. Which is why I like things like cuts and bruises - they're like little flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something, like 'cut' or 'bruise,' people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, and you don't know what it is, it can be very beautiful.

I'm always interested in something when it isn't familiar to me.

Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.

I never knew what I wanted, except that it was something I hadn't seen before.

Every living person and thing responds to beauty. We all thirst for it. We receive strength and renewal by seeing stirring and satisfying sites.

One day's exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.

The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.

The element of discovery is very important. I don't repeat myself well. I want and need that stimulus of walking forward from one new world to another. There is something demoralizing about going back to a place to retake pictures. You can no longer see your subjects in a fresh eye; you keep comparing them with the pictures you hold in your memory. [The] world was full of discoveries waiting to be made...(as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned...you would react to something all others might walk by.

Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.

If I can find something that I haven't done before, then that is an immediate...it peaks my interest.

It is the end of art to inoculate men with the love of nature.