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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Purpose of art21 quotes
Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen. — Leo Tolstoy · 1897Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. — Pablo Picasso · 1945If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint. — Edward Hopper · 1956Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity. — Leo Tolstoy · 1897The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder. — Glenn Gould · 1982I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street. — Claes Oldenburg · 1961All 21 quotes →Art17 quotes
Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. — Pablo Picasso · 1945Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity. — Leo Tolstoy · 1897The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder. — Glenn Gould · 1982I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street. — Claes Oldenburg · 1961The first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eyes. — Eugene Delacroix · 1863Art has always been the raft on to which we climb to save our sanity. — Dorothea Tanning · 2002All 17 quotes →Art as therapy2 quotes
Art has always been the raft on to which we climb to save our sanity. — Dorothea Tanning · 2002Throughout the ages, man has conquered tragedy with his ability to create works of art. — Will Barnet · 1964Painting2 quotes
Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. — Pablo Picasso · 1945The first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eyes. — Eugene Delacroix · 1863Art and science1 quote
Art is meant to disturb, science reassures. — Georges Braque · 1952Artist and audience1 quote
I want to make work so people can be moved by a sense of the possible. — Zhang Huan · 2000Artists1 quote
Though the great artists of the past could not change the course of history, it is only through their work that we are able to break bread with the dead, and without communion with the dead a fully human life is impossible. — W.H. Auden · 1967Life1 quote
Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness. — Gustave Flaubert · 1864Limits of language1 quote
If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint. — Edward Hopper · 1956Nature of art1 quote
Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity. — Leo Tolstoy · 1897Photography1 quote
The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself. — Edward Steichen · 1972Power of art1 quote
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage. — Alexander Pope · 1713Science1 quote
Art is meant to disturb, science reassures. — Georges Braque · 1952The human condition1 quote
Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness. — Gustave Flaubert · 1864