Famous Quotes

"I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a society where you're trying not to look at it is stupid because looking at death throws us back into life with more vigour and energy. The fact that flowers don't last for ever makes them beautiful."

Damien Hirst on Society

More quotes about Society

• "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

  Mahatma Gandhi on Society

• "An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."

  Robert A. Heinlein on Society

• "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

  Jiddu Krishnamurti on Society

• "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."

  Dwight D. Eisenhower on Society

• "There is more to life than increasing its speed."

  Mahatma Gandhi on Society

More quotes by Damien Hirst

• "In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death."

• "I always feel like the art's there and I just see it, so it's not really a lot of work."

• "I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds. Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great."

• "But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - or at least you think you are. The possibilities are limitless, you're inventing the future. Then you get older and suddenly you have a history. It's fixed. You can't change anything. I find that a bit disturbing, to be honest."

• "In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death."