Surely if it be worth while troubling ourselves about the works of art of to-day, of which any amount almost can be done, since we are yet alive, it is worth while spending a little care, forethought, and money in preserving the art of bygone ages, of which (woe worth the while!) so little is left, and of which we can never have any more, whatever good-hap the world may attain to.
Where these words come from
- Lots of sources credit William Morris with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3773
More from William Morris
See allHave nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William MorrisIn 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 Morris
William MorrisIn 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 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