Herbert Read Quotes

The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word.

I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature.

A man of personality can formulate ideals, but only a man of character can achieve them.

I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration.

The most general law in nature is equity-the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency.

Love works miracles in stillness.

The sensitive artist knows that a bitter wind is blowing.

Progress is measured by richness and intensity of experience - by a wider and deeper apprehension of the significance and scope of human existence.

Art is pattern informed by sensibility.

Great changes in the destiny of mankind can be effected only in the minds of little children.

Spontaneity is not enough - or, to be more exact, spontaneity is not possible until there is an unconscious coordination of form, space and vision.

The work of art... is an instrument for tilling the human psyche, that it may continue to yield a harvest of vital beauty.

The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol.

That is why I believe that art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man's spiritual vision.

Simplicity is not a goal, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, as one approaches the real meaning of things.

Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness.

Revolt, it will be said, implies violence; but this is an outmoded, an incompetent conception of revolt. The most effective form of revolt in this violent world we live in is non-violence.

What I do deny is that you can build any enduring society without some such mystical ethos.

It was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties - everything we mean by the word 'culture'.

I have not the slightest doubt that this form of individuation represents a higher stage in the evolution of mankind.

I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority.

The sense of historical continuity, and a feeling for philosophical rectitude cannot, however, be compromised.

The farther a society progresses, the more clearly the individual becomes the antithesis of the group.

In general, modern art... has been inspired by a natural desire to chart the uncharted.

Works of art must persist as objects of contemplation.

Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society.

It does not seem that the contradiction which exists between the aristocratic function of art and the democratic structure of modern society can ever be resolved.

To realize that new world we must prefer the values of freedom and equality above all other values - above personal wealth, technical power and nationalism.

The characteristic political attitude of today is not one of positive belief, but of despair.

The point I am making is that in the more primitive forms of society the individual is merely a unit; in more developed forms of society he is an independent personality.

Creeds and castes, and all forms of intellectual and emotional grouping, belong to the past.

In the evolution of mankind there has always been a certain degree of social coherence.

If we persist in our restless desire to know everything about the universe and ourselves, then we must not be afraid of what the artist brings back from his voyage of discovery.

My own early experiences in war led me to suspect the value of discipline, even in that sphere where it is so often regarded as the first essential for success.

You might think that it would he the natural desire of every man to develop as an independent personality, but this does not seem to be true.

If the individual is a unit in a corporate mass, his life is not merely brutish and short, but dull and mechanical.

It is already clear, after twenty years of socialism in Russia, that if you do not provide your society with a new religion, it will gradually revert to the old one.

I know of no better name than Anarchism.

The fundamental purpose of the artist is the same as that of a scientist: to state a fact.

If modern art has produced symbols that are unfamiliar, that was only to be expected.

It was Nietzsche who first made us conscious of the significance of the individual as a term in the evolutionary process-in that part of the evolutionary process which has still to take place.

Man is everywhere still in chains.

We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.

The depths modern art has been exploring are mysterious depths, full of strange fish.

The slave may be happy, but happiness is not enough.

The modern artist, by nature and destiny, is always an individualist.

Perhaps it is this theory of all work and no play that has made the Marxist such a very dull boy.

The only sin is ugliness, and if we believed this with all our being, all other activities of the human spirit could be left to take care of themselves.

It is not my purpose as a poet to condemn war (or to be exact, modern warfare). I only wish to present the universal aspects of a particular event.

Nobody seriously believes in the social philosophies of the immediate past.