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Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one's reaso...more

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Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.Vice and virtue are the artist’s materials for an art. From the point of view of form, th...more

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No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpa...more

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No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

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The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by taking my books away from me. I...more

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For what is truth? In matters of religion, it is simply the opinion that has survived. In matters of science, it is the ultimate sensation. In matters...more

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There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.The nineteenth century dislike of realism ...more

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Spontaneity is a meticulously prepared art

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No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beau...more

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The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

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Art, even the art of fullest scope and widest vision, can never really show us the external world. All that it shows us is our own soul, the one world...more

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With slouch and swing around the ringWe trod the Fools’ Parade!We did not care: we knew we wereThe Devils’ Own Brigade:And shaven head and feet of lea...more

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Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

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Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself.She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance.

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Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.