Clive Bell Quotes

There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless. ~ Clive Bell

We have no other means of recognising a work of art than our feeling for it. ~ Clive Bell

Art and relligion are not professions: they are not occupations for which men can be paid. The artist and the saint do what they have to do, not to make a living, but in obedience to some mysterious necessity. They do not product to live - they live to produce. ~ Clive Bell

The representative element in a work of art may or may not be harmful, but it is always irrelevant. For to appreciate a work of art, we must bring with us nothing from life, no knowledge of its affairs and ideas, no familiarity with its emotions. ~ Clive Bell

All sensitive people agree that there is a peculiar emotion provoked by works of art. ~ Clive Bell

Let the artist have just enough to eat, and the tools of this trade: ask nothing of him. Materially make the life of the artist sufficiently miserable to be unattractive, and no-one will take to art save those in whom the divine daemon is absolute. ~ Clive Bell

It is not by his mixing and choosing, but by the shapes of his colors, and the combination of those shapes, that we recognize the colorist. Color becomes significant only when it becomes form. ~ Clive Bell

Do not mistake a crowd of big wage-earners for the leisure class. ~ Clive Bell

Cezanne is the Christopher Columbus of a new continent of form. ~ Clive Bell

Civilized people can talk about anything. For them no subject is taboo ... In civilized societies there will be no intellectual bogeys at sight of which great grownup babies are expected to hide their eyes. ~ Clive Bell

It would follow that 'significant form' was form behind which we catch a sense of ultimate reality. ~ Clive Bell

By the close of the nineteenth century her studies with her father were being supplemented by tuition in the classics from Dr Warr of King's College, Kensington, and from Clara Pater, sister of the English essayist and
critic Walter Pater (1839–94). Woolf was very fond of Clara and an exchange between them later became the basis for her short story 'Moments of Being: Slater's Pins Have No Points' (1928). Thoby boarded at Clifton College,
Bristol, Adrian was a dayboy at Westminster School, and Vanessa attended Cope's School of Art. Thoby, and later Adrian, eventually went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and Vanessa undertook training in the visual arts (attending the Slade School of Fine Art for a while). From 1902 Virginia's tuition in classics passed from Clara Pater to the very capable Janet Case, one of the first graduates from Girton College, Cambridge, and a committed feminist. The sisters visited Cambridge a number of times to meet Thoby, whose friends there included Clive Bell 1881–1964), Lytton Strachey (1880– 1932), Leonard Woolf (1880–1969) and Saxon Sydney-Turner. ~ Jane Goldman

I have been using art as a means to the emotions of life and reading into it the ideas of life. ~ Clive Bell

We all agree now - by 'we' I mean intelligent people under sixty - that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. ~ Clive Bell

The 1970s and 1980s: feminism, androgyny, modernism, aesthetics

In the 1970s and 1980s, Woolf studies expanded in a number of directions,
most notably in relation to feminism. Critical interest in Woolf developed at the same time as feminism developed in related academic disciplines. In this period her writings became central to the theoretical framing of feminism, in
particular to debates on Marxist and materialist feminism and to the emergent theories of androgyny. Both these areas of debate takeWoolf 's A Room of One's Own as a major point of reference...
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At the same time as feminist approaches to Woolf were developing and expanding, so, too, was the critical interest in her modernist theories and her formal aesthetics. Again, Woolf 's writing became central to critical and theoretical formulations on modernism.

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This period also saw considerable critical interest in the influence of the visual arts on Woolf 's writing, and particularly in the influence of the formalist theories of her Bloomsbury colleagues Roger Fry and Clive Bell. ~ Jane Goldman

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open. ~ Clive Bell

Why do people venerate Einstein or Bill Gates? Clive Bell explains: Genius worship is the inevitable sign of an uncreative age ... ~ John Geddes

I will try to account for the degree of my aesthetic emotion. That, I conceive, is the function of the critic. ~ Clive Bell

It is the mark of great art that its appeal is universal and eternal. ~ Clive Bell

The forms of art are inexhaustible; but all lead by the same road of aesthetic emotion to the same world of aesthetic ecstasy. ~ Clive Bell

Detail is the heart of realism, and the fatty degeneration of art. ~ Clive Bell

Leslie Stephen died in 1904. In that year his children retreated to Wales for a period and then travelled in Italy. Vanessa and Virginia went on to Paris, where they met up with Clive Bell. On returning to London, Virginia suffered
a severe, suicidal breakdown. ~ Jane Goldman

No one has the last word other than God. ~ Rob Bell

I will read you their names directly; here they are in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time. '
' ... but are they all horrid? Are you sure they are all horrid?'
'Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrews, a sweet girl, one of the sweetest creatures in the world, has read every one of them. ~ Jane Austen

The fully human person is in deep and meaningful contact with the world outside of him. He not only listens to himself, but to the voices of the world. The breadth of his own individual experience is infinitely multiplied through a sensitive empathy with others. He suffers with the suffering, rejoices with the joyful. He is born again in every springtime, feels the impact of the great mysteries of life: birth, growth, love, suffering, death. His heart skips along with the 'young lovers', and he knows something of the exhilaration that is in them. He also knows the ghetto's philosophy of despair, the loneliness of suffering without relief, and the bell never tolls without tolling in some strange way for him. ~ John Joseph Powell

Bach's music is really some of the greatest. I think, in some ways, Bach is the most profound composer of all. ~ Joshua Bell

The stupid thief wears the sheep bell around his neck! Such stupidity of the bad is always good for the society! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Here. There. Everywhere." He leered at his friend. "Thinking about you and Moira's
underwear. ~ Dana Marie Bell

I'll tell you now that I hate myself for many reasons, but being Jewish is not one of them. ~ Clive Sinclair

All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish. ~ Clive James

When I first was trying to play the clubs around Houston to start playing my own songs, songwriters like Eric Taylor and Vince Bell and Townes Van Zandt and Don Sanders were just really encouraging to me and would let me sit in with them during their sets and introduce me to the person that owned and booked the club. ~ Lyle Lovett

Courage is a decision you make to act in a way that works through your own fear for the greater good as opposed to pure self-interest. Courage means putting at risk your immediate self-interest for what you believe is right. ~ Derrick A. Bell

It's exciting to do something you're writing. And it's also a lot easier to memorize because you wrote it. ~ Jillian Bell

It's definitely a difficult thing to capture and I mean, I've seen a ton of movies where I've believed the couple and I've seen a ton of movies where I have not believed them at all. Unfortunately, as an audience member, you check out if you don't believe them. ~ Kristen Bell

In 1935, Faber & Faber published an anthology entitled 'My Best Western Story' in which the genre's leading practitioners contributed what they considered their finest. Alas, literature the stories ain't; they appear more like fossils from a spent mine. ~ Clive Sinclair

In chemistry class I write Peter a note
You were right about Josh.
I tap him on the back and slip the note in his hand. When he reads it, he sits up straight and immediately scrawls something back.
Be more specific.
He kissed me.
When Peter stiffens, I am ashamed to say that I feel a little bit vindicated. I wait for him to write back, but he doesn't. As soon as the bell rings, he turns around and says, "What the hell? How did that even happen?"
"He came over to help us trim the tree."
"And then what? He kissed you in front of Kitty?"
"No! It was just the two of us at the house."
Peter looks really irritated, and I'm starting to regret mentioning it. "What the hell is he thinking, kissing my girlfriend? It's fucking ridiculous. I'm gonna say something to him."
"Wait, what? No!"
"I have to, Lara Jean. He can't just get away with it."
I stand up and start packing up my bag. "You'd better not say anything to him, Peter. I mean it."
Peter watches me silently. And then he asks, "Did you kiss him back?"
"What does it matter?"
He looks taken aback. "Are you mad at me for something?"
"No," I say. "But I will be if you say anything to Josh."
"Fine," he says.
"Fine," I say back. ~ Jenny Han

I'm famous for splurging at fast-food places. I'm currently obsessed with Taco Bell's bean and cheese burritos with extra green sauce and extra cheese. Gluttony! ~ Fergie

It is isn't easy to make someone who hasn't experienced it understand what it feels like, this martyrdom of being judged, devalued, disqualified, and misrepresented by journalists writing in haste who are bored by reading and who, for that matter, hardly ever read anything anyway. - WITOLD GOMBROWICZ, ~ Clive James

You get paid for the seven and a half hours a day you put in here," Kelly often told new Bell Labs employees in his speech to them on their first day, "but you get your raises and promotions on what you do in the other sixteen and a half hours. ~ Jon Gertner

I didn't figure out the makeup or cute hair or clothes until oh, maybe my junior year of high school. ~ Catherine Bell

I could tell he wanted the best for me. Of course, he assumed that would be getting out. Everyone always thought that, not of what we had to go back to, at home. Maybe our parents had thrown away our mattresses. Maybe they'd told our siblings we'd been run over by trains, to make our absence fonder.
Not everyone had a parent. It could be that nothing was waiting for us. Our keys would no longer fit the locks. We'd resort to ringing the bell, saying we've come home, can't we come in?
The eye in the peephole would show itself, and that eye could belong to a stranger, as our family had moved halfway across the country and never informed us. Or that eye could belong to the woman who carried us for nine months, who labored for fourteen hours, who was sliced open with a C-section to give us life, and now wished she never did.
The juvenile correctional system could let us out into the world, but it could not control who would be out there, willing to claim us. ~ Nova Ren Suma

He was back at me like a cat, and he swung a hard chunk of wood from one of the smashed chairs. I caught the first one on the shoulder and I cleverly caught the next one right over the left ear. It broke a big white bell in my head, and he side-stepped, grunting for breath, and let me go down. I landed on my side, and he punted me in the belly like Groza trying for one from the mid-field stripe. ~ John D. MacDonald

May the sound of this bell penetrate deeply into the cosmos. In even the darkest places, may living beings hear it clearly so that understanding comes to their hearts, and without much hardship, they transcend the cycle of birth and death. or: ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

He'd never seen such a look on any human face: such a wilderness of innocent malice. A ~ Clive Barker

Harry slipped down a few stairs in shock. It was packed, far more crowded than when he had last been in there. Kingsley and Lupin were looking up at him, as were Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, and Mr and Mrs Weasley. ~ J.K. Rowling

Ash sarcastically rang an invisible bell with his hand. Ding, ding, ding. Give that boy a trophy. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

I learned early on how to make best use of my time. You know, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to practice time. And unfortunately, I still need to practice a lot. ~ Joshua Bell

I would rather be on stage playing to 25 people with a band I love and the music I love than learning dance moves I don't want to do for 25,000 people. ~ Drake Bell

THE MISCHIEVOUS DOG
There was once a Dog who used to snap at people and bite them without any provocation, and who was a great nuisance to every one who came to his master's house. So his master fastened a bell round his neck to warn people of his presence. The Dog was very proud of the bell, and strutted about tinkling it with immense satisfaction. But an old dog came up to him and said, "The fewer airs you give yourself the better, my friend. You don't think, do you, that your bell was given you as a reward of merit? On the contrary, it is a badge of disgrace."
Notoriety is often mistaken for fame. ~ Aesop

I sort of loved the bustle of a thousand questions. Women are inherently kind of multitaskers. ~ Lake Bell

The places where death comes to take love away, where we lose each other and lose ourselves; that's where the connections begin. It takes a brave soul to look there and not despair."
"I've tried to be brave," she said.
"I know," he said softly. "I know. ~ Clive Barker

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop your books and run like hell ~ Stephen Chbosky

It is difficult for me to believe that quantum mechanics, working very well for currently practical set-ups, will nevertheless fail badly with improvements in counter efficiency. ~ John Stewart Bell