Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
In plain words
Keep things that are useful, or things that are beautiful. Nothing else.
Where these words come from
- 88% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- William Morris, "The Beauty of Life" lecture, Birmingham, Feb 19 1880.
- "The Beauty of Life" (lecture)
- 1880 · Birmingham, England · Morris's lecture on design, craft, and everyday beauty
More from William Morris
See allIn a true society these miracles of ingenuity would be for the first time used for minimizing the amount of time spent in unattractive labour, which by their means might be so reduced as to be but a very light burden on each individual.
William MorrisOf all that I have to say to you this seems to me the most important, that our daily and necessary work, which we could not escape if we would, which we would not forego if we could, should be human, serious, and pleasurable, not machine-like, trivial, or grievous.William MorrisSome work, nay, almost all the work done by artisans is too mechanical; and those that work at it must either abstract their thoughts from it altogether, in which case they are but machines while they are at work; or else they must suffer such dreadful weariness in getting through it, as one can scarcely bear to think of.William MorrisBut that education does not end when people leave school is now a mere commonplace; and how then can you really educate men who lead the life of machines, who only think for the few hours during which they are not at work, who in short spend almost their whole lives in doing work which is not proper for developing them body and mind in some worthy way?William MorrisSo I say that, in spite of our inventions, no worker works under the present system an hour the less on account of those labour-saving machines, so-called.William MorrisAgain, if the necessary reasonable work be of a mechanical kind, I must be helped to do it by a machine, not to cheapen my labour, but so that as little time as possible may be spent upon it, and that I may be able to think of other things while am tending the machine.William Morris
William MorrisOf all that I have to say to you this seems to me the most important, that our daily and necessary work, which we could not escape if we would, which we would not forego if we could, should be human, serious, and pleasurable, not machine-like, trivial, or grievous.William MorrisSome work, nay, almost all the work done by artisans is too mechanical; and those that work at it must either abstract their thoughts from it altogether, in which case they are but machines while they are at work; or else they must suffer such dreadful weariness in getting through it, as one can scarcely bear to think of.William MorrisBut that education does not end when people leave school is now a mere commonplace; and how then can you really educate men who lead the life of machines, who only think for the few hours during which they are not at work, who in short spend almost their whole lives in doing work which is not proper for developing them body and mind in some worthy way?William MorrisSo I say that, in spite of our inventions, no worker works under the present system an hour the less on account of those labour-saving machines, so-called.William MorrisAgain, if the necessary reasonable work be of a mechanical kind, I must be helped to do it by a machine, not to cheapen my labour, but so that as little time as possible may be spent upon it, and that I may be able to think of other things while am tending the machine.William MorrisMore on creativity
Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
John RuskinWe answer: To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination.George MacDonaldThe imagination is that faculty which gives form to thought—not necessarily uttered form, but form capable of being uttered in shape or in sound, or in any mode upon which the senses can lay hold.George MacDonaldIt is, therefore, that faculty in man which is likest to the prime operation of the power of God, and has, therefore, been called the creative faculty, and its exercise creation.George MacDonaldIt is better to keep the word creation for that calling out of nothing which is the imagination of God; except it be as an occasional symbolic expression, whose daring is fully recognized, of the likeness of man’s work to the work of his maker.George MacDonaldThe imagination of man is made in the image of the imagination of God.George MacDonald
John RuskinWe answer: To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination.George MacDonaldThe imagination is that faculty which gives form to thought—not necessarily uttered form, but form capable of being uttered in shape or in sound, or in any mode upon which the senses can lay hold.George MacDonaldIt is, therefore, that faculty in man which is likest to the prime operation of the power of God, and has, therefore, been called the creative faculty, and its exercise creation.George MacDonaldIt is better to keep the word creation for that calling out of nothing which is the imagination of God; except it be as an occasional symbolic expression, whose daring is fully recognized, of the likeness of man’s work to the work of his maker.George MacDonaldThe imagination of man is made in the image of the imagination of God.George MacDonald