Art Quotes

"Art is the highest calling of humanity, transcending all earthly concerns."

"The artist's duty is to transform suffering into transcendence."

"The artist is both prisoner and liberator of the human soul."

"Art without emotion is merely technique."

"The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously."

"It is an absolute truth that the principles of composition cannot be taught; they come from the heart."

"My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the musical note and without the assistance of so many accessories, which the majority of composers drag after them."

"The old Italian masters understood that music must move the heart."

"I have nothing in the world but my divine art."

"My goal is to strike the listener's heart."

"A musician must be like a sculptor, shaping his work with precision and care."

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."

"The pleasure of art is that it teaches us how to behave in imaginary circumstances."

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

"Conversations about art lack words."

"Art never progresses, it simply changes direction."

"The artist must become the instrument of his art."

"A great work leaves you changed, never the same."

"The poet and the musician are brothers in spirit."

"A life without art is a life half-lived."

"Art is the response to the demand for entertainment."

"The artist is a channel for forces beyond himself."

"Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not a foreign dialect, but the voice of America itself."

"The important thing in art is sincerity, whether you're expressing joy or melancholy."

"Comedy and pathos are often intertwined in the best artistic expressions."

"Art must come from within; it cannot be forced or manufactured."

"An artist's responsibility is to capture the spirit of his time and place."

"The beautiful should never be sacrificed for the useful."

"Compose as if you have something to say, not because you wish to say something."

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."