JM > JM's Quotes

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
― Edgar Degas

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.”
― Marcel Duchamp

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
― Marcel Duchamp

“A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.”
― Albert Camus

“The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?”
― Frank Zappa

“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
― Aristotle

“True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.”
― Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations

“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist”
― René Magritte

“The business of art lies just in this, -- to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible.”
― Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?

“Art is the proper task of life. ”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.”
― Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“We have art in order not to die of the truth.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
― Henri Bergson

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
― Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

“We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it's a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky

“Let everything that's been planned come true. Let them believe. And let them have a laugh at their passions. Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world. And most important, let them believe in themselves. Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”
― Heraclitus

“Even a soul submerged in sleep
is hard at work and helps
make something of the world.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
― Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
― Zhuangzi, Chuang Tsu: Inner Chapters

“A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I am my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Don't for heaven's sake, be afraid of talking nonsense! But you must pay attention to your nonsense.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value

“If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“I enjoy inventing things out of fun. After all, life is a game, not a career.”
― Brion Gysin

“Time is a game played beautifully by children.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments

“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
― Alan Watts

“Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.”
― Albert Einstein