Classic Art Quotes

When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before. ~ Clifton Fadiman

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance. ~ Max Eastman

What are they doing here, these difficult young persons and their still more difficult guardians? This - this sacred Elysian garden of the great humanistic tradition of classic wisdom and classic art - must not be invaded by clamorous babes and agitated elders, must not be profaned either by the plaudits or the strictures of the unlettered mob. Somewhere in human life, and where should it be if not in the cloistered seclusion of noble literature? - there must be an escape from the importunities of such people and from the responsibilities of the ignorance they so jealously guard. ~ John Cowper Powys

To the memory of Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, El Greco, and many others who came before me as well as those who will come after. We are one. Thank you. ~ Luther E. Vann

The Bobbit case, which brought to life the ancient mythic archetype of woman as castrator, demonstrated that women are as aggressive as men and that sex is a dark, dangerous force of nature. But of course the feminist establishment, stuck in its battered-woman blinders, learned nothing as usual from this lurid refutation of its normal views. Classic art works like Bizet's Carmen tell us more about the irrationality of love, jealousy and revenge than do all the pat formulas of the counseling industry. ~ Camille Paglia

One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience. ~ William Safire

Art is the closest thing I have to faith. ~ Abigail Boyd

All my work is created from personal experiences. My hope is always that others will see it as a gateway, develop their own message and feel a part of the art. ~ Sanford Biggers

If commercialization is putting my art on a shirt so that a kid who can't afford a $30,000 painting can buy one, then I'm all for it. ~ Keith Haring

Recommend virtue to your children, that alone - not wealth - can give happiness. It upholds in adversity and the thought of it and my art prevents me from putting an end to my life. ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven

As I said before, I took to miniature painting without a completely whole heart, on the advice of my elders and betters. Generally speaking, I do not think that one should ever take another person's advice in the things of life that really matter, but follow the dictates of the still small something in one's innermost self. But 'they' advised, and I bowed to the advice; and in this particular instance it was a good thing I did, because the advice turned out to be so resoundingly wrong that it turned me into another direction altogether. If I had gone on working in oils I might very well have been a dedicated but unsuccessful painter to this day. ~ Rosemary Sutcliff

There's nothing wrong with it. It's only a word. What's in a name? Nothing! Cats say, "Call me Muhammed so-and-so. " ~ Art Blakey

It's not only music. It's not only art. It's a community. It's a sense of having a place to belong. ~ Jared Leto

Art is a vital part of life. For as long as artists create vulgar content, and for as long there continues to be a market for it, we are a long way from reducing teenage pregnancies. However, we can apply the law of supply and demand; hoard the goods. ~ DON SANTO

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents, there must be respect for the people that have gone before. ~ Jon Hendricks

Everything he's learned about the Civil Service tells him that having tea poured for you is one of the ferociously guarded signifiers of rank, like the grade of paintings from the Government Art Collection hung on your office wall, or the quality of your carpet. ~ Charles Stross

Marketing is as much art as it is science. ~ Alex Goldfayn

Contempt for theory, art, history, and for man as an end in himself, which is contained in an abstract form in the Jewish religion, is the real, conscious standpoint, the virtue of the man of money. The species-relation itself, the relation between man and woman, etc., becomes an object of trade! The woman is bought and sold. ~ Karl Marx

There are too many images, too many cameras now. We're all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It's just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn't an art anymore. Maybe it never was ~ Robert Frank

If I'm feeling down in the dumps, or like I need a pop of colour, I'll put on MAC's Lipstick in Lady Danger. I discovered red lipstick when I did the Oscar season: Chanel sent me one and I realised how classic and glamorous it can be. ~ Chloe Sevigny

It is difficult to give a recipe for successful conversation. But it would certainly include three fundamentals. Assemble good ingredients, mix and spice with your own thinking, and serve attractively.
To assemble the ingredients, read. Read lots of different things. Read newspapers that express a viewpoint contrary to your own; read periodicals that have thoughtful, provocative articles; read books that tell of places and persons of current interest; read fiction, of course, but not to the exclusion of all other things. ~ Helen Valentine

The whole Epistle is so methodical, that even its very beginning is framed according to the rules of art. ~ John Calvin

This is the kind of touch they like: folk art, archaic, made by women, in their spare time, from things that have no further use. A return to traditional values. Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want? On ~ Margaret Atwood

If I am a sex symbol, it's certainly not in the classic sense. I'm opposed to the traditional image of a woman's role. ~ Nadezhda Tolokonnikova

Photography, as an invention, was both art and science. The view it gave us of the world was in some measure acceptable because it was a product of our vision of the world; and it did so as part of the same process which seemed to impart 'truth': science. ~ Joseph Kosuth

The greatest teacher has nothing to say. He simply gives himself in service, and never worries. ~ Laozi

Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects. ~ Epictetus

I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking head-on. At the end of the day, people are more important than paintings. ~ Damien Hirst

Jules Breton has spoken of the history of his life as being at the same time the genesis of his art. This is true of Nikola Tesla's evolution. His bent toward invention we may surely trace to his mother, who, as the wife of an eloquent clergyman in the Greek Church, made ~ Nikola Tesla

I visited the Museum of Modern Art and viewed the exhibition of Picasso's sculptures, and I couldn't help but think about what it would be like to have a room full of school children explore Picasso's approach to making art. ~ Jerry Pinkney

When I went to university, I was a philosophy major, but because I'm not very bright I chose to study philosophy at a performing arts school, maybe because the philosophy program there wasn't too rigorous or challenging. ~ Moby

Honestly I'm glad. Cases where stupid people do stupid things are really more my forte. Like this guy." He picked up a folder from the mess on his desk. "He updated his Facebook account from inside a house he was robbing. Classic Cliff McCormack material. I'll leave the murderers to someone who knows what he's doing. ~ Rob Thomas

Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good. ~ Chuck Close

Don't think about making art ... ~ Andy Warhol

Sometimes I love the marriage of art and commerce; I love Donna Summer; I like the Rolling Stones. ~ Moby

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them. ~ Diane Arbus