The Art Quotes

If we know that the enemy is open to attack, but are unaware that our own men are not in a condition to attack, we have gone only halfway towards victory.

If not in the interests of the state, do not act. If you cannot succeed, do not use troops. If you are not in danger, do not fight.

Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset, and prompt in his decision.

To capture an enemies army is better than to destroy it.

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.

Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move.

Generally in war the best policy is to take a state intact; to ruin it is inferior to this.

Now a soldier's spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday it has begun to flag; and in the evening, his mind is only on returning to camp.

Bestow rewards without regard to rule, issue orders without regard to previous arrangements; and you will be able to handle a whole army as though you had to do with but a single man.

The "happening" operates by creating an asymmetrical network of surprises, without climax or consummation, this is the alogism of dreams rather than the logic of most art.

One finds life through conquering the fear of death within one's mind. Empty the mind of all forms of attachment, make a go-for-broke charge and conquer the opponent with one decisive slash.

Art and politics have many things in common.

Language, thought, analysis, art, dance, poetry, mythmaking: these are the things that point the way toward the realm of the eschaton.

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

[Great artists] do not copy what they see, but what they desire.

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.

What thou art, that thou art; that God knoweth thee to be and thou canst be said to be no greater.

By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors.

Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them to the world, save that the echo repeats only the last art, but fame relates all, and often more than all.

The science which teacheth arts and handicrafts is merely science for the gaining of a living; but the science which teacheth deliverance from worldly existence, is not that the true science?

To appreciate a work of art, is it okay to like what you like, and the heck with the art critics and experts? Absolutely.

Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores.

I never really consider myself as a great artist. I just always like to draw.

In 1968 the Arts Council managed to get a grant from the treasury to buy up a lot of derelict touring theatres and put them back in the hands of the local authorities.

If cooking becomes an art form rather than a means of providing a reasonable diet, then something is clearly wrong.

Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art.

I’ve always been a sponge, just absorbing whatever I see, whether it’s in daily life or in art.

We are cutting things kids like-music, art, and gym classes; stuff that kept me in school. This country can't survive without you kids. It's all about you kids.

It's all in the art. You get no credit for living.

Poetry must be human. If it is not human, it is not poetry.

Marriage always demands the greatest understanding of the art of insincerity possible between two human beings.

We need religion for religions's sake, morality for morality's sake and art for art's sake.

When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.

Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art.

Art demands constant observation.

Do you know that drawing with words is also an art... ?

We live in constant danger of coming apart. The mystery of why we do not always come apart is the animating tension of all art.

Writing is a divine art, and the more I write and read the more I love it.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

There is no science without fancy and no art without fact.

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art.

Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods.

Well, art has to be sexy.

Complete freedom debilitates art but reveals much about character.

The art consensus is not criteria, it is convenience.

Nothing is as hopeless as trying to justify art in words.

The rewards of art are not always commensurate with its quality. It affords a precarious living.

Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find some universal formula for it.

But the business side of it, as with most creative things, there is no room for business. It is about art. It's not about marketing.

The organic laws of construction tangled me in my desires, and only with great pain, effort, and struggle did I break through these 'walls around art.