Art Quotes

Beauty, expression, and the human need to create. Artists and thinkers on why art matters.

21093 quotes

G
"Art expresses what logic alone cannot adequately convey."
George Berkeley
A
"Art is the language through which the soul speaks what words cannot express."
Antonio Genovesi
J
"Art should imitate the mechanisms of nature."
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
J
"Art reflects the mechanical beauty of natural organization."
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
J
"The artist's true canvas is the transformation of inner vision into outer form."
Johann Tetens
J
"Art is the human response to the vastness and mystery of existence."
Johann Tetens
G
"Poetry must precede prose in the evolution of human thought."
Giovanni Vico
G
"The artist is the one who sees what others merely look at."
Giovanni Vico
J
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
Johann Goethe
J
"The greatest respect an artist can pay to public taste is to ignore it."
Johann Goethe
J
"To the man who loves art, the world is never ugly."
Johann Goethe
J
"Art is the beautiful revelation of man to himself."
Johann Herder
J
"Art gives voice to the human soul."
Johann Herder
C
"Art is the expression of the human spirit and experience."
Catharine Macaulay
C
"Art reveals what mere observation cannot discover."
Catharine Macaulay
F
"Art is the daughter of freedom."
Friedrich Schiller
F
"The world needs beauty as well as bread."
Friedrich Schiller
F
"Where the muses reign, there is abundance without excess."
Friedrich Schiller
H
"Art is the expression of the soul."
Hugo Grotius
H
"Art speaks where words fail."
Hugo Grotius
C
"Art is the expression of reason made visible and tangible."
Christian Wolff
J
"Art elevates the human spirit above mere existence"
Jean Bodin
J
"Art expresses what words cannot convey"
Jean Bodin
H
"Art elevates the human spirit above the mundane."
Hugo Grotius
J
"Art arises from the depths of human feeling and experience."
Johann Herder
J
"Art is the testimony of the human spirit's refusal to accept mere existence."
Johann Herder
C
"Art and literature are records of human thought and aspiration."
Catharine Macaulay
J
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."
Johann Goethe
J
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
Johann Goethe
J
"The most important thing about painting is the frame. It separates the vision from the dream."
Johann Goethe