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Beatrix Potter11 creation made from this quoteAlways continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that's the real way to learn to understand art.
Vincent van GoghI am working from morning to evening, brimming with energy. I'm fencing and wrestling with the sun.
Claude MonetMelody and harmony should be simply tools in the hands of the artist, with which he creates music.
Giuseppe VerdiIf you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
Toni MorrisonI'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English.
L.M. MontgomeryI used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life.
Mary CassattHave nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William MorrisThe music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower growing amidst encroaching weeds.
Antonín DvořákWhy do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus depriving it of its mystery?
Leonard BernsteinI figured out that my passion is not really for music. My passion is actually for people.
Yo-Yo MaIf Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all.
John KeatsWe want our sound to go into the soul of the audience, and see if it can awaken some little thing in their minds.
Jimi HendrixMusic expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Victor HugoOh, how beautiful music is; so often it is my consolation when I would like to cry.
Clara SchumannFiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.
Robert Louis StevensonEvery genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.
Ralph Waldo EmersonSometimes I am so full of music, and so overflowing with melody, that I find it simply impossible to write down anything.
Robert SchumannFine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
John RuskinBeauty beyond thought everywhere, beneath, above, made and being made forever.
John MuirI'll paint what I see -- what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big.
Georgia O'KeeffeYou cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth.
Alexander Graham BellRhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
PlatoDo not merely practice your art, but force your way into its secrets.
Ludwig van BeethovenIf you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
Henry David ThoreauThere are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind.
Duke EllingtonYou can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
Maya AngelouA book on nature should produce an impression like nature itself.
Alexander von HumboldtWhen jazz is played in another nation, it is called American.
George GershwinThe greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor.
AristotleThe more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.
MichelangeloMy music is best understood by children and animals.
Igor StravinskyI was so happy to have some place to blow my horn.
Louis ArmstrongIt is in general the unexplored that attracts us.
Murasaki ShikibuI never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.
Frida KahloI obey nature, I never presume to command her.
Auguste RodinThe artist is the creator of beautiful things.
Oscar WildeImagination is more important than knowledge.
Albert EinsteinThe dream has to be translated into reality.
Anaïs NinMusic is the universal language of mankind.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowFor me, music and life are all about style.
Miles DavisWhere words fail, sounds can often speak.
Hans Christian AndersenIt's kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt DisneyBooks, the children of the brain.
Jonathan SwiftI was born with music inside me.
Ray CharlesMelody is the essence of music.
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWork is the only device I know of. Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
Truman CapoteThe man has but to light the lamp within the form: his imagination is the light, it is not the form.George MacDonaldBut corruption must utterly have destroyed the fabric of human society before poetry can ever cease.Percy Bysshe ShelleyPoetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe art of disposing the foldings of the drapery makes a very considerable part of the painter's study.Joshua ReynoldsI will go further; even genius, at least what generally is so called, is the child of imitation.Joshua ReynoldsEquations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry.
Stephen HawkingThe imagination is the light which redeems from the darkness for the eyes of the understanding.George MacDonaldTo be able to live a moment in an imagined world, we must see the laws of its existence obeyed.George MacDonaldPoetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of the will.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThis great ideal perfection and beauty are not to be sought in the heavens, but upon the earth.Joshua ReynoldsThe power of representing this mental picture on canvas is what we call invention in a Painter.Joshua ReynoldsAs in Invention, so likewise in Expression, care must be taken not to run into particularities.Joshua ReynoldsWhen you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
George Washington CarverA genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean.George MacDonaldThe laws of the spirit of man must hold, alike in this world and in any world he may invent.George MacDonaldTo one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness.George MacDonaldThe parts of a composition may be poetical, without the composition as a whole being a poem.Percy Bysshe ShelleyAll high poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which contained all oaks potentially.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIf he be a true man, he will imagine true things; what matter whether I meant them or not?George MacDonaldAll words, then, belonging to the inner world of the mind, are of the imagination, are originally poetic words.George MacDonaldI am on the contrary persuaded that by imitation only, variety, and even originality of invention, is produced.Joshua ReynoldsA painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
Leopold StokowskiAll the processes of the ages are God’s science; all the flow of history is his poetry.George MacDonaldIs not the Poet, the Maker, a less suitable name for him than the Trouvère, the Finder?George MacDonaldHe must be an artist indeed who can, in any mode, produce a strict allegory that is not a weariness to the spirit.George MacDonaldWe answer: To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination.George MacDonaldAnd if it be to man what creation is to God, we must expect to find it operative in every sphere of human activity.George MacDonaldPoetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry administers to the effect by acting upon the cause.Percy Bysshe ShelleyReason is to the imagination as the instrument to the agent, as the body to the spirit, as the shadow to the substance.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt compels us to feel that which we perceive, and to imagine that which we know.Percy Bysshe ShelleyAnd the construction of any hypothesis whatever is the work of the imagination.George MacDonaldIf we now consider the so-called creative faculty in man, we shall find that in no primary sense is this faculty creative.George MacDonaldAll that has been said, then, tends to enforce the culture of the imagination.George MacDonaldBut if we speak of direct means for the culture of the imagination, the whole is comprised in two words—food and exercise.George MacDonaldThe highest imagination and the lowliest common sense are always on one side.George MacDonaldA fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.George MacDonaldIn conformity to custom, I call this part of the art History Painting; it ought to be called Poetical, as in reality it is.Joshua ReynoldsTheir inventions are not only the food of our infancy, but the substance which supplies the fullest maturity of our vigour.Joshua ReynoldsEvery beauty will have its word, only all beauties will be subordinated to the final beauty—that is, the unity of the whole.George MacDonaldThe value and rank of every art is in proportion to the mental labour employed in it, or the mental pleasure produced by it.Joshua ReynoldsInvention, in Painting, does not imply the invention of the subject, for that is commonly supplied by the Poet or Historian.Joshua ReynoldsNay, the poetic relations themselves in the phenomenon may suggest to the imagination the law that rules its scientific life.George MacDonaldThe region belonging to the pure intellect is straitened: the imagination labours to extend its territories, to give it room.George MacDonaldWhen we turn to history, however, we find probably the greatest operative sphere of the intellectuo-constructive imagination.George MacDonaldIt is necessary that all should understand and imagine the good; that all should begin, at least, to follow and find out God.George MacDonaldReason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things.Percy Bysshe ShelleyOn the modern stage a few only of the elements capable of expressing the image of the poet's conception are employed at once.Percy Bysshe ShelleyAny key to a work of imagination would be nearly, if not quite, as absurd.George MacDonaldThe poetry of Dante may be considered as the bridge thrown over the stream of time, which unites the modern and ancient world.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIn physical things a man may invent; in moral things he must obey—and take their laws with him into his invented world as well.George MacDonaldPoetry strengthens the faculty which is the organ of the moral nature of man, in the same manner as exercise strengthens a limb.Percy Bysshe ShelleyLucretius is in the highest, and Virgil in a very high sense, a creator.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt creates anew the universe, after it has been annihilated in our minds by the recurrence of impressions blunted by reiteration.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe imagination of man is made in the image of the imagination of God.George MacDonaldGod has made the world that it should thus serve his creature, developing in the service that imagination whose necessity it meets.George MacDonaldThe better, however, any such word is fitted for the needs of humanity, the sooner it loses its poetic aspect by commonness of use.George MacDonaldPoetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be 'the expression of the imagination': and poetry is connate with the origin of man.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe principle now laid down, that the perfection of this art does not consist in mere imitation, is far from being new or singular.Joshua ReynoldsIn the former sense, whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt is indisputably evident that a great part of every man's life must be employed in collecting materials for the exercise of genius.Joshua ReynoldsPerhaps Dante created imaginations of greater loveliness and energy than any that are to be found in the ancient literature of Greece.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe beauty may be plainer in it than the truth, but without the truth the beauty could not be, and the fairytale would give no delight.George MacDonaldA poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one; as far as relates to his conceptions, time and place and number are not.Percy Bysshe ShelleyPoetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.Percy Bysshe ShelleyI find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.
Thomas EdisonBeauty and simplicity have so great a share in the composition of a great style, that he who has acquired them has little else to learn.Joshua ReynoldsWhat we now call Genius begins, not where rules abstractedly taken end, but where known vulgar and trite rules have no longer any place.Joshua ReynoldsTo play great music, you must keep your eyes on a distant star.
Yehudi MenuhinWe ought not to expect more than an artist intends in his work.Joshua ReynoldsAs to his glory, let time be challenged to declare whether the fame of any other institutor of human life be comparable to that of a poet.Percy Bysshe ShelleyA Painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art.Joshua ReynoldsIn moderate attempts there are many walks open to the artist.Joshua ReynoldsGenius will still have room enough to expatiate, and keep always at the same distance from narrow comprehension and mechanical performance.Joshua ReynoldsI just tried to do what I heard the horns in the band doing.
Ella FitzgeraldThe caverns of the mind are obscure, and shadowy; or pervaded with a lustre, beautifully bright indeed, but shining not beyond their portals.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt is vain for painters or poets to endeavour to invent without materials on which the mind may work, and from which invention must originate.Joshua ReynoldsFeed your imagination with food convenient for it, and exercise it, not in the contortions of the acrobat, but in the movements of the gymnast.George MacDonaldPoetry is ever accompanied with pleasure: all spirits on which it falls open themselves to receive the wisdom which is mingled with its delight.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThere are excellencies in the art of painting beyond what is commonly called the imitation of Nature, and these excellencies I wish to point out.Joshua ReynoldsThose who would quell the apparently lawless tossing of the spirit, called the youthful imagination, would suppress all that is to grow out of it.George MacDonaldThere are many beauties in our art that seem, at first, to lie without the reach of precept, and yet may easily be reduced to practical principles.Joshua ReynoldsReason is the enumeration of quantities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those quantities, both separately and as a whole.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIf we put these great artists in a light of comparison with each other, Raffaelle had more Taste and Fancy, Michel Angelo more Genius and Imagination.Joshua ReynoldsWe answer that the antidote to indulgence is development, not restraint, and that such is the duty of the wise servant of Him who made the imagination.George MacDonaldThe most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWhoever would have his children avoid this arid region will do well to allow no teacher to approach them—not even of mathematics—who has no imagination.George MacDonaldThis idea of the perfect state of Nature, which the Artist calls the Ideal beauty, is the great leading principle by which works of genius are conducted.Joshua ReynoldsPlato was essentially a poet—the truth and splendour of his imagery, and the melody of his language, are the most intense that it is possible to conceive.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThus thousands of words which were originally poetic words owing their existence to the imagination, lose their vitality, and harden into mummies of prose.George MacDonaldYet it is by no means essential that a poet should accommodate his language to this traditional form, so that the harmony, which is its spirit, be observed.Percy Bysshe ShelleyI appeal to the greatest poets of the present day, whether it is not an error to assert that the finest passages of poetry are produced by labour and study.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIndeed, it is the peculiar characteristic of men of genius to be afraid of coldness and insipidity, from which they think they never can be too far removed.Joshua ReynoldsAll styles are good except the boring kind.
VoltaireThe principal advantage of an Academy is, that, besides furnishing able men to direct the Student, it will be a repository for the great examples of the Art.Joshua ReynoldsWhat we mean to insist upon is, that in finding out the works of God, the Intellect must labour, workman-like, under the direction of the architect, Imagination.George MacDonaldWithout this union, which I have so often recommended, a work can have no marked and determined character, which is the peculiar and constant evidence of genius.Joshua ReynoldsAs he that is willing to do the will of the Father, shall know of the doctrine, so, we doubt not, he that will do the will of THE POET, shall behold the Beautiful.George MacDonaldA story of particular facts is as a mirror which obscures and distorts that which should be beautiful: poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe right teacher would have his pupil easy to please, but ill to satisfy; ready to enjoy, unready to embrace; keen to discover beauty, slow to say, “Here I will dwell.”George MacDonaldI would chiefly recommend that an implicit obedience to the Rules of Art, as established by the practice of the great Masters, should be exacted from the young Students.Joshua ReynoldsHe will teach him not to mistake fancy, either in himself or in others for imagination, and to beware of hunting after resemblances that carry with them no interpretation.George MacDonaldThe delight of love and friendship, the ecstasy of the admiration of nature, the joy of the perception and still more of the creation of poetry, is often wholly unalloyed.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe best way with music, I imagine, is not to bring the forces of our intellect to bear upon it, but to be still and let it work on that part of us for whose sake it exists.George MacDonaldThe imagination in us, whose exercise is essential to the most temporary submission to the imagination of another, immediately, with the disappearance, of Law, ceases to act.George MacDonaldCultivate the mere intellect as you may, it will never reduce the passions: the imagination, seeking the ideal in everything, will elevate them to their true and noble service.George MacDonaldPerhaps Shakespeare, from the variety and comprehension of his genius, is to be considered, on the whole, as the greatest individual mind, of which we have specimens remaining.Percy Bysshe ShelleyEvery seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions.Joshua ReynoldsIt 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 MacDonaldThe great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWe know no more of cause and effect than a constant conjunction of events: poetry is ever found to coexist with whatever other arts contribute to the happiness and perfection of man.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIn this art, as in others, there are many teachers who profess to show the nearest way to excellence; and many expedients have been invented by which the toil of study might be saved.Joshua ReynoldsWhen we have had continually before us the great works of Art to impregnate our minds with kindred ideas, we are then, and not till then, fit to produce something of the same species.Joshua ReynoldsA poet, as he is the author to others of the highest wisdom, pleasure, virtue and glory, so he ought personally to be the happiest, the best, the wisest, and the most illustrious of men.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWhat has been, and what can be done in the art, is sufficiently difficult; we need not be mortified or discouraged at not being able to execute the conceptions of a romantic imagination.Joshua ReynoldsThese excellencies were, heretofore, considered merely as the effect of genius; and justly, if genius is not taken for inspiration, but as the effect of close observation and experience.Joshua ReynoldsImagination or mind employed in prophetically imaging forth its objects, is that faculty of human nature on which every gradation of its progress, nay, every, the minutest, change, depends.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe frequent recurrence of the poetical power, it is obvious to suppose, may produce in the mind a habit of order and harmony correlative with its own nature and its effects upon other minds.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThey must, therefore, be told again and again, that labour is the only price of solid fame, and that whatever their force of genius may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good Painter.Joshua ReynoldsThe most astonishing combinations of poetry, the subtlest deductions of logic and mathematics, are no other than combinations which the intellect makes of sensations according to its own laws.Percy Bysshe ShelleyBut although the human imagination has no choice but to make use of the forms already prepared for it, its operation is the same as that of the divine inasmuch as it does put thought into form.George MacDonaldOr, to use another more philosophical, and certainly not less poetic figure, the world is a sensuous analysis of humanity, and hence an inexhaustible wardrobe for the clothing of human thought.George MacDonaldA man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe 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 MacDonaldHerein, too, we proceed in the hope to show how much more than is commonly supposed the imagination has to do with human endeavour; how large a share it has in the work that is done under the sun.George MacDonaldIt is the imagination that suggests in what direction to make the new inquiry—which, should it cast no immediate light on the answer sought, can yet hardly fail to be a step towards final discovery.George MacDonaldFrom such visions as these the imagination reaps the best fruits of the earth, for the sake of which all the science involved in its construction, is the inferior, yet willing and beautiful support.George MacDonaldPoetry ever communicates all the pleasure which men are capable of receiving: it is ever still the light of life; the source of whatever of beautiful or generous or true can have place in an evil time.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe only distinction between the selfish man and the virtuous man is, that the imagination of the former is confined within a narrow limit, whilst that of the latter embraces a comprehensive circumference.Percy Bysshe ShelleyYea, more than this: we dare to claim for the true, childlike, humble imagination, such an inward oneness with the laws of the universe that it possesses in itself an insight into the very nature of things.George MacDonaldThe power of drawing, modelling, and using colours is very properly called the Language of the Art; and in this language, the honours you have just received prove you to have made no inconsiderable progress.Joshua ReynoldsThe untaught mind finds a vast gulf between its own powers and those works of complicated art, which it is utterly unable to fathom; and it supposes that such a void can be passed only by supernatural powers.Joshua ReynoldsIn this kind, then, the best must be set before the learner, that he may eat and not be satisfied; for the finest products of the imagination are of the best nourishment for the beginnings of that imagination.George MacDonaldEspecially must he endeavour to show the spiritual scaffolding or skeleton of any work of art; those main ideas upon which the shape is constructed, and around which the rest group as ministering dependencies.George MacDonaldThe poets, orators, and rhetoricians of antiquity are continually enforcing this position,—that all the arts receive their perfection from an ideal beauty, superior to what is to be found in individual nature.Joshua ReynoldsThe principal works of modern art are in Fresco, a mode of painting which excludes attention to minute elegancies: yet these works in Fresco are the productions on which the fame of the greatest masters depends.Joshua ReynoldsWe are very sure that the beauty of form, the expression of the passions, the art of composition, even the power of giving a general air of grandeur to a work, is at present very much under the dominion of rules.Joshua ReynoldsBut by whatever strides criticism may gain ground, we need be under no apprehension that invention will ever be annihilated or subdued; or intellectual energy be brought entirely within the restraint of written law.Joshua ReynoldsLeaving this aside, however, and turning to the embodiment or revelation of thought, we shall find that a man no more creates the forms by which he would reveal his thoughts, than he creates those thoughts themselves.George MacDonaldAn observation of the regular mode of the recurrence of harmony in the language of poetical minds, together with its relation to music, produced metre, or a certain system of traditional forms of harmony and language.Percy Bysshe ShelleyLanguage, colour, form, and religious and civil habits of action, are all the instruments and materials of poetry; they may be called poetry by that figure of speech which considers the effect as a synonym of the cause.Percy Bysshe ShelleyBut poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty; whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWhen the Artist is once enabled to express himself with some degree of correctness, he must then endeavour to collect subjects for expression; to amass a stock of ideas, to be combined and varied as occasion may require.Joshua ReynoldsBut the truth is, that the degree of excellence which proclaims Genius is different, in different times and different places; and what shows it to be so is, that mankind have often changed their opinion upon this matter.Joshua ReynoldsPoets, according to the circumstances of the age and nation in which they appeared, were called, in the earlier epochs of the world, legislators, or prophets: a poet essentially comprises and unites both these characters.Percy Bysshe ShelleyNot merely in literature does poetry come first, and prose afterwards, but poetry is the source of all the language that belongs to the inner world, whether it be of passion or of metaphysics, of psychology or of aspiration.George MacDonaldWe believe, therefore, that nothing will do so much for the intellect or the imagination as being good —we do not mean after any formula or any creed, but simply after the faith of Him who did the will of his Father in heaven.George MacDonaldWe want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life: our calculations have outrun conception; we have eaten more than we can digest.Percy Bysshe ShelleyA mind enriched by an assemblage of all the treasures of ancient and modern art will be more elevated and fruitful in resources, in proportion to the number of ideas which have been carefully collected and thoroughly digested.Joshua ReynoldsNor are those supreme poets, who have employed traditional forms of rhythm on account of the form and action of their subjects, less capable of perceiving and teaching the truth of things, than those who have omitted that form.Percy Bysshe ShelleyPoetry, as has been said, differs in this respect from logic, that it is not subject to the control of the active powers of the mind, and that its birth and recurrence have no necessary connexion with the consciousness or will.Percy Bysshe ShelleyHence the vanity of translation; it were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its colour and odour, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThis operation of the imagination in choosing, gathering, and vitally combining the material of a new revelation, may be well illustrated from a certain employment of the poetic faculty in which our greatest poets have delighted.George MacDonaldWhen such forms are new embodiments of old truths, we call them products of the Imagination; when they are mere inventions, however lovely, I should call them the work of the Fancy: in either case, Law has been diligently at work.George MacDonaldCertainly it would be a poor description of the Imagination which omitted the one element especially present to the mind that invented the word Poet.—It can present us with new thought-forms—new, that is, as revelations of thought.George MacDonaldHis world once invented, the highest law that comes next into play is, that there shall be harmony between the laws by which the new world has begun to exist; and in the process of his creation, the inventor must hold by those laws.George MacDonaldInvention is one of the great marks of genius; but if we consult experience, we shall find that it is by being conversant with the inventions of others, that we learn to invent; as by reading the thoughts of others we learn to think.Joshua ReynoldsThe drama being that form under which a greater number of modes of expression of poetry are susceptible of being combined than any other, the connexion of poetry and social good is more observable in the drama than in whatever other form.Percy Bysshe ShelleyInvention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can come of nothing: he who has laid up no materials can produce no combinations.Joshua ReynoldsThe more extensive, therefore, your acquaintance is with the works of those who have excelled, the more extensive will be your powers of invention; and what may appear still more like a paradox, the more original will be your conceptions.Joshua ReynoldsThe errors of genius, however, are pardonable, and none even of the more exalted painters are wholly free from them; but they have taught us, by the rectitude of their general practice, to correct their own affected or accidental deviation.Joshua ReynoldsEvery word so employed with a new meaning is henceforth, in its new character, born of the spirit and not of the flesh, born of the imagination and not of the understanding, and is henceforth submitted to new laws of growth and modification.George MacDonaldA poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.Percy Bysshe ShelleyI have thought this the obstacle that has stopped the progress of many young men of real genius; and I very much doubt whether a habit of drawing correctly what we see will not give a proportionable power of drawing correctly what we imagine.Joshua ReynoldsIt 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 MacDonaldTime, which destroys the beauty and the use of the story of particular facts, stripped of the poetry which should invest them, augments that of poetry, and for ever develops new and wonderful applications of the eternal truth which it contains.Percy Bysshe ShelleyRaffaelle, who stands in general foremost of the first painters, owes his reputation, as I have observed, to his excellence in the higher parts of the art; his works in Fresco, therefore, ought to be the first object of our study and attention.Joshua ReynoldsAnd as to keeping to that which is known and leaving the rest—how many affairs of this world are so well-defined, so capable of being clearly understood, as not to leave large spaces of uncertainty, whose very correlate faculty is the imagination?George MacDonaldEvery original language near to its source is in itself the chaos of a cyclic poem: the copiousness of lexicography and the distinctions of grammar are the works of a later age, and are merely the catalogue and the form of the creations of poetry.Percy Bysshe ShelleyUnsubstantial, however, as these rules may seem, and difficult as it may be to convey them in writing, they are still seen and felt in the mind of the artist; and he works from them with as much certainty, as if they were embodied, as I may say, upon paper.Joshua ReynoldsThe practice is indeed convenient and popular, and to be preferred, especially in such composition as includes much action: but every great poet must inevitably innovate upon the example of his predecessors in the exact structure of his peculiar versification.Percy Bysshe ShelleyHow many more principles may be fixed and ascertained we cannot tell; but as criticism is likely to go hand in hand with the art which is its subject, we may venture to say, that as that art shall advance, its powers will be still more and more fixed by rules.Joshua ReynoldsSome thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law.George MacDonaldEven in modern times, no living poet ever arrived at the fullness of his fame; the jury which sits in judgement upon a poet, belonging as he does to all time, must be composed of his peers: it must be impanelled by Time from the selectest of the wise of many generations.Percy Bysshe ShelleyA Student is not always advancing because he is employed; he must apply his strength to that part of the art where the real difficulties lie; to that part which distinguishes it as a liberal art; and not by mistaken industry lose his time in that which is merely ornamental.Joshua ReynoldsThe tragedies of the Athenian poets are as mirrors in which the spectator beholds himself, under a thin disguise of circumstance, stript of all but that ideal perfection and energy which every one feels to be the internal type of all that he loves, admires, and would become.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe cultivation of poetry is never more to be desired than at periods when, from an excess of the selfish and calculating principle, the accumulation of the materials of external life exceed the quantity of the power of assimilating them to the internal laws of human nature.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIn the scientific region of her duty of which we speak, the Imagination cannot have her perfect work; this belongs to another and higher sphere than that of intellectual truth—that, namely, of full-globed humanity, operating in which she gives birth to poetry—truth in beauty.George MacDonaldIf a writer’s aim be logical conviction, he must spare no logical pains, not merely to be understood, but to escape being misunderstood; where his object is to move by suggestion, to cause to imagine, then let him assail the soul of his reader as the wind assails an aeolian harp.George MacDonaldPoetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thought of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all other thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices whose void for ever craves fresh food.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIf any man shall be master of such a transcendent, commanding, and ductile genius, as to enable him to rise to the highest, and to stoop to the lowest, flights of art, and to sweep over all of them, unobstructed and secure, he is fitter to give example than to receive instruction.Joshua ReynoldsThe greatest natural genius cannot subsist on its own stock: he who resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will be soon reduced, from mere barrenness, to the poorest of all imitations; he will be obliged to imitate himself, and to repeat what he has before often repeated.Joshua ReynoldsHence the language of poets has ever affected a certain uniform and harmonious recurrence of sound, without which it were not poetry, and which is scarcely less indispensable to the communication of its influence, than the words themselves, without reference to that peculiar order.Percy Bysshe ShelleyAnd this is true with respect to poetry in its most extended sense: all language, institution and form, require not only to be produced but to be sustained: the office and character of a poet participates in the divine nature as regards providence, no less than as regards creation.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWhen the Artist has by diligent attention acquired a clear and distinct idea of beauty and symmetry; when he has reduced the variety of nature to the abstract idea; his next task will be to become acquainted with the genuine habits of nature, as distinguished from those of fashion.Joshua ReynoldsThe functions of the poetical faculty are two-fold; by one it creates new materials of knowledge and power and pleasure; by the other it engenders in the mind a desire to reproduce and arrange them according to a certain rhythm and order which may be called the beautiful and the good.Percy Bysshe ShelleyNot that I assert poets to be prophets in the gross sense of the word, or that they can foretell the form as surely as they foreknow the spirit of events: such is the pretence of superstition, which would make poetry an attribute of prophecy, rather than prophecy an attribute of poetry.Percy Bysshe ShelleyPoetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed; it marries exultation and horror, grief and pleasure, eternity and change; it subdues to union under its light yoke, all irreconcilable things.Percy Bysshe ShelleyNot to enter into metaphysical discussions on the nature or essence of genius, I will venture to assert, that assiduity unabated by difficulty, and a disposition eagerly directed to the object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar to those which some call the result of natural powers.Joshua ReynoldsBut in the culture of the imagination, books, although not the only, are the readiest means of supplying the food convenient for it, and a hundred books may be had where even one work of art of the right sort is unattainable, seeing such must be of some size as well as of thorough excellence.George MacDonaldThis, which may be called the original or characteristical style, being less referred to any true archetype existing either in general or particular nature, must be supported by the painter's consistency in the principles which he has assumed, and in the union and harmony of his whole design.Joshua ReynoldsPoets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt must not, indeed, be forgotten that there is a nobleness of conception which goes beyond anything in the mere exhibition even of perfect form; there is an art of animating and dignifying the figures with intellectual grandeur, of impressing the appearance of philosophic wisdom, or heroic virtue.Joshua ReynoldsIn the interpretation of individual life, the same principles hold; and nowhere can the imagination be more healthily and rewardingly occupied than in endeavouring to construct the life of an individual out of the fragments which are all that can reach us of the history of even the noblest of our race.George MacDonaldLaw is the soil in which alone beauty will grow; beauty is the only stuff in which Truth can be clothed; and you may, if you will, call Imagination the tailor that cuts her garments to fit her, and Fancy his journeyman that puts the pieces of them together, or perhaps at most embroiders their button-holes.George MacDonaldIn the infancy of society every author is necessarily a poet, because language itself is poetry; and to be a poet is to apprehend the true and the beautiful, in a word, the good which exists in the relation, subsisting, first between existence and perception, and secondly between perception and expression.Percy Bysshe ShelleyBut while the imagination of man has thus the divine function of putting thought into form, it has a duty altogether human, which is paramount to that function—the duty, namely, which springs from his immediate relation to the Father, that of following and finding out the divine imagination in whose image it was made.George MacDonaldThe works, whether of poets, painters, moralists, or historians, which are built upon general nature, live for ever; while those which depend for their existence on particular customs and habits, a partial view of nature, or the fluctuation of fashion, can only be coeval with that which first raised them from obscurity.Joshua ReynoldsWhoever has so far formed his taste, as to be able to relish and feel the beauties of the great masters, has gone a great way in his study; for, merely from a consciousness of this relish of the right, the mind swells with an inward pride, and is almost as powerfully affected as if it had itself produced what it admires.Joshua ReynoldsNo poetry comes by the elevation of prose; but the half of prose comes by the “massing into the common clay” of thousands of winged words, whence, like the lovely shells of by-gone ages, one is occasionally disinterred by some lover of speech, and held up to the light to show the play of colour in its manifold laminations.George MacDonaldIn books, we not only have store of all results of the imagination, but in them, as in her workshop, we may behold her embodying before our very eyes, in music of speech, in wonder of words, till her work, like a golden dish set with shining jewels, and adorned by the hands of the cunning workmen, stands finished before us.George MacDonaldIf any artist, I do not say had executed, but had merely conceived in his mind the system of the sun, and the stars, and planets, they not existing, and had painted to us in words, or upon canvas, the spectacle now afforded by the nightly cope of heaven, and illustrated it by the wisdom of astronomy, great would be our admiration.Percy Bysshe ShelleyCould this influence be durable in its original purity and force, it is impossible to predict the greatness of the results; but when composition begins, inspiration is already on the decline, and the most glorious poetry that has ever been communicated to the world is probably a feeble shadow of the original conceptions of the poet.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe wish of the genuine Painter must be more extensive; instead of endeavouring to amuse mankind with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must endeavour to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas; instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for fame, by captivating the imagination.Joshua ReynoldsIt is true, these refined principles cannot be always made palpable, like the more gross rules of art; yet it does not follow, but that the mind may be put in such a train, that it shall perceive, by a kind of scientific sense, that propriety, which words, particularly words of unpractised writers, such as we are, can but very feebly suggest.Joshua ReynoldsAll the authors of revolutions in opinion are not only necessarily poets as they are inventors, nor even as their words unveil the permanent analogy of things by images which participate in the life of truth; but as their periods are harmonious and rhythmical, and contain in themselves the elements of verse; being the echo of the eternal music.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWhat were virtue, love, patriotism, friendship—what were the scenery of this beautiful universe which we inhabit; what were our consolations on this side of the grave—and what were our aspirations beyond it, if poetry did not ascend to bring light and fire from those eternal regions where the owl-winged faculty of calculation dare not ever soar?Percy Bysshe ShelleyA position so wild would scarce deserve a serious answer; for it is apparent, if we were forbid to make use of the advantages which our predecessors afford us, the art would be always to begin, and consequently remain always in its infant state; and it is a common observation, that no art was ever invented and carried to perfection at the same time.Joshua ReynoldsThere is this difference between a story and a poem, that a story is a catalogue of detached facts, which have no other connexion than time, place, circumstance, cause and effect; the other is the creation of actions according to the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in the mind of the Creator, which is itself the image of all other minds.Percy Bysshe ShelleyWe ought to allow for, and we ought to commend, that strength of vivid expression which is necessary to convey, in its full force, the highest sense of the most complete effect of art; taking care, at the same time, not to lose in terms of vague admiration that solidity and truth of principle upon which alone we can reason, and may be enabled to practise.Joshua ReynoldsFor all the inventive arts maintain, as it were, a sympathetic connexion between each other, being no more than various expressions of one internal power, modified by different circumstances, either of an individual, or of society; and the paintings of that period would probably bear the same relation as is confessedly borne by the sculptures to all succeeding ones.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIt is the far-seeing imagination which beholds what might be a form of things, and says to the intellect: “Try whether that may not be the form of these things;” which beholds or invents a harmonious relation of parts and operations, and sends the intellect to find out whether that be not the harmonious relation of them—that is, the law of the phenomenon it contemplates.George MacDonaldAnd the mind of the teacher must mediate between the work of art and the mind of the pupil, bringing them together in the vital contact of intelligence; directing the observation to the lines of expression, the points of force; and helping the mind to repose upon the whole, so that no separable beauties shall lead to a neglect of the scope—that is the shape or form complete.George MacDonaldThe drama, so long as it continues to express poetry, is as a prismatic and many-sided mirror, which collects the brightest rays of human nature and divides and reproduces them from the simplicity of these elementary forms, and touches them with majesty and beauty, and multiplies all that it reflects, and endows it with the power of propagating its like wherever it may fall.Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe natural world has its laws, and no man must interfere with them in the way of presentment any more than in the way of use; but they themselves may suggest laws of other kinds, and man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms—which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation.George MacDonaldBut there is no danger of the mind being overburthened with knowledge, or the genius extinguished by any addition of images; on the contrary, these acquisitions may as well, perhaps better, be compared, if comparisons signified anything in reasoning, to the supply of living embers, which will contribute to strengthen the spark, that without the association of more fuel would have died away.Joshua ReynoldsPoets are not only subject to these experiences as spirits of the most refined organization, but they can colour all that they combine with the evanescent hues of this ethereal world; a word, a trait in the representation of a scene or a passion, will touch the enchanted chord, and reanimate, in those who have ever experienced these emotions, the sleeping, the cold, the buried image of the past.Percy Bysshe ShelleyIf deceiving the eye were the only business of the art, there is no doubt, indeed, but the minute painter would be more apt to succeed; but it is not the eye, it is the mind which the painter of genius desires to address; nor will he waste a moment upon those smaller objects which only serve to catch the sense, to divide the attention, and to counteract his great design of speaking to the heart.Joshua ReynoldsPoetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar; it reproduces all that it represents, and the impersonations clothed in its Elysian light stand thenceforward in the minds of those who have once contemplated them as memorials of that gentle and exalted content which extends itself over all thoughts and actions with which it coexists.Percy Bysshe ShelleyTo conclude what I have to say on this part of the subject, which I think of great importance, I wish you to understand that I do not discourage the younger Students from the noble attempt of uniting all the excellencies of art; but suggest to them, that, beside the difficulties which attend every arduous attempt, there is a peculiar difficulty in the choice of the excellencies which ought to be united.Joshua ReynoldsThey, who have never observed the gradation by which art is acquired; who see only what is the full result of long labour and application of an infinite number and infinite variety of acts, are apt to conclude, from their entire inability to do the same at once, that it is not only inaccessible to themselves, but can be done by those only who have some gift of the nature of inspiration bestowed upon them.Joshua ReynoldsA man cannot say, 'I will compose poetry.' The greatest poet even cannot say it; for the mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness; this power arises from within, like the colour of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure.Percy Bysshe ShelleyA faithful picture of a mind, though it be not of the most elevated kind, though it be irregular, wild, and incorrect, yet if it be marked with that spirit and firmness which characterise works of genius, will claim attention, and be more striking than a combination of excellencies that do not seem to unite well together; or we may say, than a work that possesses even all excellencies, but those in a moderate degree.Joshua ReynoldsIn very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect.George MacDonaldPoetry thus makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful in the world; it arrests the vanishing apparitions which haunt the interlunations of life, and veiling them, or in language or in form, sends them forth among mankind, bearing sweet news of kindred joy to those with whom their sisters abide—abide, because there is no portal of expression from the caverns of the spirit which they inhabit into the universe of things.Percy Bysshe ShelleyHow shall we set about giving people without traditions of art eyes with which to see works of art?William MorrisModern taste calls for music that is concise, condensed, and pithy.Antonín DvořákA thing of beauty is a joy forever.John KeatsIf it sounds good it IS good.Duke EllingtonSimplicity is the essential, vital element of description.Alexander von HumboldtI invent nothing, I rediscover.Auguste RodinThe poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.Anaïs NinWhen we do fantasy, we must not lose sight of reality.Walt DisneyMusic must never offend the ear, even in most horrendous situations, but must always be pleasing.Wolfgang Amadeus MozartTo invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.Thomas EdisonAll art starts from this simplicity; and the higher the art rises, the greater the simplicity.William MorrisNothing must be too low or too insignificant for the musician.Antonín DvořákFor every laugh, there should be a tear.Walt DisneySo I say, if you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.William MorrisThat thing which I understand by real art is the expression by man of his pleasure in labour.William MorrisTo have a meaning and to make others feel and understand it, must ever be the aim and end of our Western art.William MorrisYou must master it so far as to make it express a meaning, and to serve your aim at beauty.William MorrisOnce more I say that the greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.William MorrisThe word Architecture has, I suppose, to most of you the meaning of the art of building nobly and ornamentally.William MorrisI do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.William MorrisYou cannot educate, you cannot civilise men, unless you can give them a share in art.William MorrisHowever, I cannot forget that, in my mind, it is not possible to dissociate art from morality, politics, and religion.William MorrisYet to my mind real art is cheap, even at the price that must be paid for it.William MorrisThe fertile man, he of resource, has not to worry himself about invention.William MorrisWho can say how little we should know of many periods, but for their art?William MorrisWe could have a few real works of art at the same price for which we now have hundreds of yards of makeshift machine-woven goods.William MorrisHistory (so called) has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; Art has remembered the people, because they created.William MorrisHow shall people in general get leisure enough from toil, and truce enough with anxiety to give scope to their inborn longing for beauty?William MorrisAnyhow, however it be done, unless people care about carrying on their business without making the world hideous, how can they care about Art?William MorrisArt was not born in the palace; rather she fell sick there, and it will take more bracing air than that of rich men’s houses to heal her again.William MorrisI suppose you will think it too commonplace of me to say that the general education that makes men think, will one day make them think rightly upon art.William MorrisHe need but think of beauty and simplicity of expression; his work will grow on and on, one thing leading to another, as it fares with a beautiful tree.William MorrisBut moreover you may sometimes have an opportunity of studying ancient art in a narrower but a more intimate, a more kindly form, the monuments of our own land.William MorrisPray do not forget, that any one who cuts down a tree wantonly or carelessly, especially in a great town or its suburbs, need make no pretence of caring about art.William MorrisYet such were even now the state of art were it not for that hope which I am here to set forth to you, the hope of an art that shall express the soul of the people.William MorrisThe artist came out from the handicraftsmen, and left them without hope of elevation, while he himself was left without the help of intelligent, industrious sympathy.William MorrisIt seems to me that, by a great piece of good luck, the way to pay for them is by doing that which alone can produce popular art among us: living a simple life, I mean.William MorrisI hold that men would wake up after a while, and look round and find the dulness unbearable, and begin once more inventing, imitating, and imagining, as in earlier days.William MorrisBut if to any of you I have seemed to speak hopelessly, my words have been lacking in art; and you must remember that hopelessness would have locked my mouth, not opened it.William MorrisDo not, at any rate, shelter yourselves from any misgiving you may have behind the fallacy that the art-lacking labour of to-day is happy work: for the most of men it is not so.William MorrisAnyhow, let us make up our minds which we want, art, or the absence of art, and be prepared if we want art, to give up many things, and in many ways to change the conditions of life.William MorrisAs to the bricklayer, the mason, and the like—these would be artists, and doing not only necessary, but beautiful, and therefore happy work, if art were anything like what it should be.William MorrisLet us therefore study it wisely, be taught by it, kindled by it; all the while determining not to imitate or repeat it; to have either no art at all, or an art which we have made our own.William MorrisWhat else can we do to help to educate ourselves and others in the path of art, to be on the road to attaining an Art made by the people and for the people as a joy to the maker and the user?William MorrisHow shall we give them leisure from toil, and truce with anxiety, so that they may have time to brood over the longing for beauty which men are born with, as ’tis said, even in London streets?William MorrisThe danger that the present course of civilisation will destroy the beauty of life—these are hard words, and I wish I could mend them, but I cannot, while I speak what I believe to be the truth.William MorrisSo I will content myself with saying this on these qualities, that though a designer may put all manner of strangeness and surprise into his patterns, he must not do so at the expense of beauty.William MorrisAs to the second, I do not think that any man but one of the highest genius, could do anything in these days without much study of ancient art, and even he would be much hindered if he lacked it.William MorrisFirst clear steady principle, then playing with the danger, and lastly falling into the snare, mark with the utmost distinctness the times of the health, the decline, and the last sickness of art.William MorrisSirs, I believe that art has such sympathy with cheerful freedom, open-heartedness and reality, so much she sickens under selfishness and luxury, that she will not live thus isolated and exclusive.William MorrisTrue it is that that meaning may have come down to us traditionally, and not be our own invention, yet we must at heart understand it, or we can neither receive it, nor hand it down to our successors.William MorrisFor you know all art is compact of effort, of failure and of hope, and we cannot but think that somewhere perfection lies ahead, as we look anxiously for the better thing that is to come from the good.William MorrisThis was the growth of art: like all growth, it was good and fruitful for awhile; like all fruitful growth, it grew into decay; like all decay of what was once fruitful, it will grow into something new.William MorrisAt first sight its hope of victory is slender indeed: yet to us now living it seems as if man had not yet lost all that part of his soul which longs for beauty: nay we cannot but hope that it is not yet dying.William MorrisThe excellence of this sort of work lies in a clear but soft relief of the form, in colours each beautiful in itself, and harmonious one with the other on ground whose colour is also beautiful, though unobtrusive.William MorrisThere is the hard business for us! to get all simple people to care about art, to get them to insist on making it part of their lives, whatever becomes of systems of commerce and labour held perfect by some of us.William MorrisThat cause is the Democracy of Art, the ennobling of daily and common work, which will one day put hope and pleasure in the place of fear and pain, as the forces which move men to labour and keep the world a-going.William MorrisBy what means then shall those work who long for reform in the arts, and who shall they seek to kindle into eager desire for possession of beauty, and better still, for the development of the faculty that creates beauty?William MorrisTime was when the mystery and wonder of handicrafts were well acknowledged by the world, when imagination and fancy mingled with all things made by man; and in those days all handicraftsmen were artists, as we should now call them.William MorrisIt follows from this that your convention must be your own, and not borrowed from other times and peoples; or, at the least, that you must make it your own by thoroughly understanding both the nature and the art you are dealing with.William MorrisYet even then one might be excused for thinking that the wild rose was scarce improved on, for nothing can be more beautiful in general growth or in detail than a wayside bush of it, nor can any scent be as sweet and pure as its scent.William MorrisAs to the second moral quality of design, meaning, I include in that the invention and imagination which forms the soul of this art, as of all others, and which, when submitted to the bonds of order, has a body and a visible existence.William MorrisFinally, no amount of delicacy is too great in drawing the curves of a pattern, no amount of care in getting the leading lines right from the first, can be thrown away, for beauty of detail cannot afterwards cure any shortcoming in this.William MorrisSimplicity of life, begetting simplicity of taste, that is, a love for sweet and lofty things, is of all matters most necessary for the birth of the new and better art we crave for; simplicity everywhere, in the palace as well as in the cottage.William MorrisNow if the public knew anything of art, that is excellence in things made by man, they would not abide the shams of it; and if the real thing were not to be had, they would learn to do without, nor think their gentility injured by the forbearance.William MorrisNay, and apart from the morality of the matter, which I am forced to speak to you of; let me tell you that though simplicity in art may be costly as well as uncostly, at least it is not wasteful, and nothing is more destructive to art than the want of it.William MorrisFurthermore, no room of the richest man should look grand enough to make a simple man shrink in it, or luxurious enough to make a thoughtful man feel ashamed in it; it will not do so if Art be at home there, for she has no foes so deadly as insolence and waste.William MorrisBut to me, and I hope to you, Art is a very serious thing, and cannot by any means be dissociated from the weighty matters that occupy the thoughts of men; and there are principles underlying the practice of it, on which all serious-minded men, may—nay, must—have their own thoughts.William MorrisNow after all, for us who are learning art, it is not far to seek what is the surest way to further it; that which most breeds art is art; every piece of work that we do which is well done, is so much help to the cause; every piece of pretence and half-heartedness is so much hurt to it.William MorrisOur subject is that great body of art, by means of which men have at all times more or less striven to beautify the familiar matters of everyday life: a wide subject, a great industry; both a great part of the history of the world, and a most helpful instrument to the study of that history.William MorrisSo I will say that I believe there are two virtues much needed in modern life, if it is ever to become sweet; and I am quite sure that they are absolutely necessary in the sowing the seed of an art which is to be made by the people and for the people, as a happiness to the maker and the user.William MorrisYes, surely these times are wonderful and fruitful of change, which, as it wears and gathers new life even in its wearing, will one day bring better things for the toiling days of men, who, with freer hearts and clearer eyes, will once more gain the sense of outward beauty, and rejoice in it.William MorrisNow I believe the practice of this art to be one of the most important things which man can turn his hand to, and the consideration of it to be worth the attention of serious people, not for an hour only, but for a good part of their lives, even though they may not have to do with it professionally.William MorrisYou whose hands make those things that should be works of art, you must be all artists, and good artists too, before the public at large can take real interest in such things; and when you have become so, I promise you that you shall lead the fashion; fashion shall follow your hands obediently enough.William MorrisFor Art breeds Art, and every worthy work done and delighted in by maker and user begets a longing for more: and since art cannot be fashioned by mechanical toil, the demand for real art will mean a demand for intelligent work, which if persisted in will in time create its due supply—at least I hope so.William MorrisI beg you to remember both as a remedy against this, and as explaining exactly what I mean, that nothing can be a work of art which is not useful; that is to say, which does not minister to the body when well under command of the mind, or which does not amuse, soothe, or elevate the mind in a healthy state.William MorrisNor is such an art as we long for a vain dream; such an art once was in times that were worse than these, when there was less courage, kindness, and truth in the world than there is now; such an art there will be hereafter, when there will be more courage, kindness, and truth than there is now in the world.William MorrisThose of you who are real artists know well enough all the special advice I can give you, and in how few words it may be said—follow nature, study antiquity, make your own art, and do not steal it, grudge no expense of trouble, patience, or courage, in the striving to accomplish the hard thing you have set yourselves to do.William MorrisProperly speaking, this work is all pleasure: true, there are pains and perplexities and weariness in it, but they are like the troubles of a beautiful life; the dark places that make the bright ones brighter: they are the romance of the work and do but elevate the workman, not depress him: I would call this Imaginative Work.William MorrisBut, noble as that art is by itself, and though it is specially the art of civilisation, it neither ever has existed nor never can exist alive and progressive by itself, but must cherish and be cherished by all the crafts whereby men make the things which they intend shall be beautiful, and shall last somewhat beyond the passing day.William MorrisMaybe indeed that many things which I think beautiful you will deem of small account; nay, that even some things I think base and ugly will not vex your eyes or your minds: but one thing I know you will none of you like to plead guilty to; blindness to the natural beauty of the earth; and of that beauty art is the only possible guardian.William MorrisThen there is a natural and beautiful way of ornamenting a ceiling by working the plaster into delicate patterns, such as you see in our Elizabethan and Jacobean houses; which often enough, richly designed and skilfully wrought as they are, are by no means pedantically smooth in finish—nay, may sometimes be called rough as to workmanship.William MorrisWe should not be able to read the whole thing at once, nor desire to do so, nor be impelled by that desire to go on tracing line after line to find out how the pattern is made, and I think that the obvious presence of a geometrical order, if it be, as it should be, beautiful, tends towards this end, and prevents our feeling restless over a pattern.William MorrisSurely 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.William MorrisBelike the thoughts of the men who wrought this kind of art could not have been expressed in grander ways or more definitely, or, at least, would not have been; therefore I believe I am not thinking only of my own pleasure, but of the pleasure of many people, when I praise the usefulness of the lives of these men, whose names are long forgotten, but whose works we still wonder at.William MorrisImaginative work is the very blossom of civilisation triumphant and hopeful; it would fain lead men to aspire towards perfection: each hope that it fulfils gives birth to yet another hope: it bears in its bosom the worth and the meaning of life and the counsel to strive to understand everything; to fear nothing and to hate nothing: in a word, ’tis the symbol and sacrament of the Courage of the World.William MorrisIndeed when Intelligent work coexists with Imaginative, there is no hard and fast line between them; in the very best and happiest times of art, there is scarce any Intelligent work which is not Imaginative also; and there is but little of effort or doubt, or sign of unexpressed desires even in the highest of the Imaginative work: the blessing of Equality elevates the lesser, and calms the greater, art.William MorrisNow order imposes on us certain limitations, which partly spring from the nature of the art itself, and partly from the materials in which we have to work; and it is a sign of mere incompetence in either a school or an individual to refuse to accept such limitations, or even not to accept them joyfully and turn them to special account, much as if a poet should complain of having to write in measure and rhyme.William MorrisOf course, however, both as an instrument of that study we have been speaking of, as well as of the practice of the arts, all handicraftsmen should be taught to draw very carefully; as indeed all people should be taught drawing who are not physically incapable of learning it: but the art of drawing so taught would not be the art of designing, but only a means towards this end, general capability in dealing with the arts.William MorrisLet us remember this, and amid simplicity of life turn our eyes to real beauty that can be shared by all: and then though the days worsen, and no rag of the elder art be left for our teaching, yet the new art may yet arise among us, and even if it have the hands of a child together with the heart of a troubled man, still it may bear on for us to better times the tokens of our reverence for the Life of Man upon the Earth.William MorrisBut the thought of man became more intricate, more difficult to express; art grew a heavier thing to deal with, and its labour was more divided among great men, lesser men, and little men; till that art, which was once scarce more than a rest of body and soul, as the hand cast the shuttle or swung the hammer, became to some men so serious labour, that their working lives have been one long tragedy of hope and fear, joy and trouble.William MorrisIn this and in many other ways it may differ from the past art, but in one thing it must needs be like it; it will not be an esoteric mystery shared by a little band of superior beings; it will be no more hierarchical than the art of past time was, but like it will be a gift of the people to the people, a thing which everybody can understand, and every one surround with love; it will be a part of every life, and a hindrance to none.William Morris