It Is The Mark Of Great Art

The Representative Element In A Work Of Art May Or May Not Be Harmful, But It Is Always Irrelevant. For To Appreciate A Work Of Art, We Must Bring With Us Nothing From Life, No Knowledge Of Its Affairs And Ideas, No Familiarity With Its Emotions.

Only Reason Can Convince Us Of Those Three Fundamental Truths Without A Recognition Of Which There Can Be No Effective Liberty: That What We Believe Is Not Necessarily True; That What We Like Is Not Necessarily Good; And That All Questions Are Open.

We All Agree Now - By 'we' I Mean Intelligent People Under Sixty - That A Work Of Art Is Like A Rose. A Rose Is Not Beautiful Because It Is Like Something Else. Neither Is A Work Of Art. Roses And Works Of Art Are Beautiful In Themselves.

The Forms Of Art Are Inexhaustible; But All Lead By The Same Road Of Aesthetic Emotion To The Same World Of Aesthetic Ecstasy.

Let The Artist Have Just Enough To Eat, And The Tools Of This Trade: Ask Nothing Of Him. Materially Make The Life Of The Artist Sufficiently Miserable To Be Unattractive, And No-one Will Take To Art Save Those In Whom The Divine Daemon Is Absolute.