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Art has been created and enjoyed since the beginning of humankind. Art takes many forms including painting, drawing, writing, acting, music, and more. It serves as therapy, expression, protest, and entertainment. Many a beautiful word has been written about art. We have compiled the best quotes about art from artists, writers, actors, politicians, and philosophers. Check out our list below and be prepared to inspire your students (and yourself!) to create.
Quotes About Art by Famous Visual Artists
I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality. —Frida Kahlo
Art is never finished. Only abandoned. —Leonardo da Vinci
A true artist is not one who is inspired but one who inspires others. —Salvador Dalí
The task of the artist is to make the human being uncomfortable. —Lucian Freud
Art is nothing but humanized science. —Gino Severini
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
We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents. —Bob Ross
Creativity takes courage. —Henri Matisse
If I knew what the picture was going to be like, I wouldn’t make it. —Cindy Sherman
I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I have never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. —Georgia O’Keeffe
Art is my life and my life is art. —Yoko Ono
It isn’t until the painter has no idea what he’s doing that he makes good paintings. —Edgar Degas
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. —Pablo Picasso
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen. —Leonardo da Vinci
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision. —James McNeill Whistler
The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep. —Paul Strand
The sculptor, and the painter also, should be trained in these liberal arts: grammar, geometry, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, perspective, history, anatomy, theory of design, arithmetic. —Lorenzo Ghiberti
Art is the greatest form of hope. —Banksy
There is only one thing valuable in art: the thing you cannot explain. —Georges Braque
I don’t believe in art. I believe in artists. —Marcel Duchamp
Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons. —Al Hirschfeld
Quotes About Art by Philosophers
The great artists of the past were aware that human life is full of chaos and suffering. But they had a remedy for this. And the name of that remedy was “beauty.” The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worthwhile. —Roger Scruton
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. —Aristotle
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. —Francis Bacon
An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one. —Charles Horton Cooley
When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. —Denis Diderot
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. —Thomas Merton
Ideas matter—and philosophy is the art of thinking about them rigorously. In my view, that should be done in as public a forum as possible. —Sam Harris
Art expresses those unexplainable thoughts of our soul. —Debasish Mridha
Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it. —Leon Trotsky
We have art so that we shall not die of reality. —Friedrich Nietzsche
Art has no end but its own perfection. —Plato
The perfection of art is to conceal art. —Quintilian
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Psychology is a science and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves. —William James
History is as much an art as a science. —Ernest Renan
Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. —Voltaire
The urge to destroy is also a creative urge. —Mikhail Bakunin
Quotes About Art by Composers and Musicians
Trying to force creativity is never good. —Sarah McLachlan
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. —Frank Zappa
To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to hell. —Igor Stravinsky
Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art. —Brian Eno
Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy. —Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art. —Arnold Schoenberg
Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets. —Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers, and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection. —Alban Berg
The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another … and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world. —Leonard Bernstein
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple awesomely simple, that’s creativity. —Charles Mingus
Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks. —Yo-Yo Ma
The first mistake of art is to assume that it’s serious. —Lester Bangs
If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that. … I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it. —John Lennon
I think in art, but especially in films, people are trying to confirm their own existences. —Jim Morrison
Quotes About Art by Writers
Art is the stored honey of the human soul. —Theodore Dreiser
To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. —Kurt Vonnegut
In scorn of nature, art gave lifeless life. —William Shakespeare
Art and religion first; then philosophy; lastly science. That is the order of the great subjects of life, that’s their order of importance. —Muriel Spark
Artists are always the Johnny Appleseeds of gentrification. —Scott Hutchins
Writing is the painting of the voice. —Voltaire
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. —Thomas Merton
The art of writing is the manipulation of words to ease the mind and free the imagination. —Danielle Maistry
All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike. —Maya Angelou
The world is but a canvas to our imagination. —Henry David Thoreau
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art. —Philip James Bailey
Artists are here to disturb the peace. —James Baldwin
The principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke. —Jerzy Kosinski
The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them. —Anton Chekhov
Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them. —Anais Nin
Art and science have their meeting point in method. —Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. —William Blake
Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art. —Stanislaw Lem
My idea of heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast, and spend the rest of the day drawing. —Peter Falk
Quotes About Art by Mathematicians and Scientists
The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see. —John Tukey
Creativity is intelligence having fun. —Albert Einstein
The greatest artists are scientists as well. —Albert Einstein
Science is the art of the solvable. —Peter Medawar
The worst scientist is he who is not an artist; the worst artist is he who is not a scientist. —Armand Trousseau
There is an art to science and a science in art; the two are not enemies, but different aspects of the whole. —Isaac Asimov
All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries. —Karl Pearson
Science provides an understanding of a universal experience. Arts provide a universal understanding of a personal experience. —Mae Jemison
Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability. —William Osler
Through art and science in their broadest senses, it is possible to make a permanent contribution towards the improvement and enrichment of human life, and it is these pursuits that we students are engaged in. —Frederick Sanger
Art is “I,” science is “we.” —Claude Bernard
Quotes About Art by Actors and Directors
Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. —Cecil B. DeMille
I just wanted to paint and sketch and tell stories by drawing. —Robert Redford
Acting is my way of investigating human nature and having fun at the same time. —Meryl Streep
Empathy is at the heart of the actor’s art. —Meryl Streep
Art is about trying to find the good in people and making the world a more compassionate place. —Keanu Reeves
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation. —Bette Davis
Technology is technology and then art form, and people’s creativity is another thing. Anything that helps an artist do anything—great! Technology for technology’s sake doesn’t mean much to me anyway. —Tim Burton
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world. —Alan Rickman
Forget the audience, make what you want to see. —Sofia Coppola
If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies. —Quentin Tarantino
I dream for a living. —Steven Spielberg
The most honest form of filmmaking is to make a film for yourself. —Peter Jackson
Quotes About Art by Famous Political Figures
Art is man’s expression of joy in labor. —Henry Kissinger
We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. —President John F. Kennedy
The arts and humanities teach us who we are and what we can be. They lie at the very core of the culture of which we’re a part. —President Ronald Reagan
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. —President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Artists reach areas far beyond the reach of politicians. Art, especially entertainment and music, is understood by everybody, and it lifts the spirits and the morale of those who hear it. —Nelson Mandela
The arts are what makes life worth living. You’ve got food, you’ve got shelter, yeah. But the things that make you laugh, make you cry, make you connect, make you love are communicated through the arts. They aren’t extras. —President Barack Obama
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. —Winston Churchill
Art is to beauty what honor is to honesty. —Winston Churchill
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too. —President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Like these quotes about art? Check out these motivational quotes for students too!
