Famous Quotes

"The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion."

Walter Benjamin on Art

More quotes about Art

• "True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist."

  Albert Einstein on Art

• "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

  Vincent Van Gogh on Art

• "The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person."

  Abraham Lincoln on Art

• "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."

  Aristotle on Art

• "A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament."

  Oscar Wilde on Art

More quotes by Walter Benjamin

• "The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out."

• "It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed."

• "The idea that happiness could have a share in beauty would be too much of a good thing."

• "Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death."

• "Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred."