Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it “the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.” The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of “artist.”
—Edgar Allan Poe, 1849
Archive
Quotes
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BCIs this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!
—Cotton Mather, 1728’Tis the sport to have the engineer / Hoist with his own petard.
—William Shakespeare, c. 1600My mother protected me from the world and my father threatened me with it.
—Quentin Crisp, 1968Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.
—Lucretius, c. 60 BCI have learned much from disease which life could never have taught me anywhere else.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1830Water its living strength first shows, / When obstacles its course oppose.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1815A false report rides post.
—English proverbTo gaze upon a drop of water is to behold the nature of all the waters of the universe.
—Huangbo Xiyun, c. 850Good men must not obey the laws too well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844Friendship itself will not stand the strain of very much good advice for very long.
—Robert Wilson Lynd, 1924When arms speak, the laws are silent.
—Cicero, 52 BC