Art Quotes

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

21093 quotes

S
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
Stendhal
F
"Art is the expression of what cannot be spoken."
Frances Burney
J
"In a pair of fashionable shoes, I have discovered the philosophers' stone."
Jonathan Swift
L
"I am a bawdy writer, but I have no corrupting intention."
Laurence Sterne
L
"The purpose of art is to reveal what reality conceals."
Laurence Sterne
A
"In art, we find the reflection of the soul made visible."
Ann Radcliffe
A
"In art, the artist reveals not the world, but their interpretation of it."
Ann Radcliffe
S
"Taste is acquired, not given."
Samuel Johnson
F
"The pen, being an instrument of communication, has great power."
Frances Burney
F
"I am convinced that conversation is the highest art."
Frances Burney
H
"Art expresses what words alone cannot adequately convey."
Henry Fielding
H
"Art is the mirror wherein society sees its own reflection."
Henry Fielding
"The artist sees what others merely look at."
Daniel Defoe
"Art is the expression of the soul's deepest longings."
Eliza Haywood
"Art transcends the boundaries of spoken word."
Eliza Haywood
"Through art, we touch the divine."
Eliza Haywood
J
"It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy."
Jonathan Swift
"The pen is mightier than the sword in matters of the heart."
Aphra Behn
"Art is the expression of the soul."
Aphra Behn
M
"The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words."
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
M
"Art is the mirror of society."
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
"We are all performers upon the stage of life, some merely more conscious of it."
Eliza Haywood
S
"The true art of memory is the art of attention."
Samuel Johnson
P
"A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
P
"Art is the image of life."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Art is the mirror through which we see our own souls."
Aphra Behn
W
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night."
William Blake
W
"Art is the tree of life."
William Blake
W
"The Nature of my Work is Visionary or Imaginative; it is an Endeavour to Restore what the Ancients call'd the Golden Age."
William Blake
M
"Art and science are the twin pillars of civilization."
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley