WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Column (1958-11-05), “My Day”

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:23:19 +0000

The appreciation of many things in which we are not proficient ourselves but which we have learned to enjoy is one of the important things to cultivate in modern education. The arts in every field — music, drama, sculpture, painting — we can learn to appreciate and enjoy. We need not be artists, but we should be able to appreciate the work of artists.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1958-11-05), “My Day”
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1990-10-14)

Dave — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 22:29:56 +0000

HOBBES: Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1990-10-14)
(Source)

Gerassi, Fernando -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 04:34:26 +0000

I once asked him why he stopped a particular series of his paintings. You know, he would start a type of painting and keep doing more and more of them until he made one that he thought was the best of the series, and it always was, and then he stopped, and started another series. Why stop, I asked him. “Dead end,” he answered. But Stepha [Fernando’s wife] once gave me a better explanation: “Your father tries to find God through his paintings. When he realizes that a particular visual concept he’s pushing will not get him there, he stops and tries a new concept.” So one day I asked him if he believed in God, or at least did he think he could ever find God. He answered, No, of course not, then added, I remember very clearly, “There is no God but the purpose of life is to find him.”

Fernando Gerassi (1899-1974) Turkish-Spanish-American artist
(Attributed)
(Source)

John Gerassi, his son, discussing Fernando during an interview with his friend, Jean-Paul Sartre.

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)

Dave — Wed, 21 May 2025 16:07:59 +0000

I’d been painting rats for three years before someone said “that’s clever it’s an anagram of art” and I had to pretend I’d known that all along.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)
(Source)

Thoreau, Henry David -- A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Wednesday” (1849)

Dave — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:50:34 +0000

This world is but canvass to our imaginations.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Wednesday” (1849)
(Source)

Martin, Steve -- L. A. Story (1991)

Dave — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 17:43:23 +0000

FRANK: What do you do for a living, Rollie?

ROLAND: I deal in English paintings.

FRANK: Abstract or realistic?

ROLAND: Depends on which way you look at them, I suppose.

Steve Martin (b. 1945) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
L. A. Story (1991)
(Source)

(Source (Video))

La Bruyere, Jean de -- The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 1 “Of Works of the Mind [Des Ouvrages de l’Esprit],” § 7 (1.7) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]

Dave — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:48:49 +0000

There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence.
What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, of second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet’s bombast!

[Il y a de certaines choses dont la médiocrité est insupportable: la poésie, la musique, la peinture, le discours public.
Quel supplice que celui d’entendre déclamer pompeusement un froid discours, ou prononcer de médiocres vers avec toute l’emphase d’un mauvais poète!]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 1 “Of Works of the Mind [Des Ouvrages de l’Esprit],” § 7 (1.7) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Several things are insupportable if they are but indifferent, as Poetry, Music, Painting and Public Speeches.
'Tis the worst punishment in the world to hear a dull Declamation deliver'd with Pomp and Solemnity, and bad Verses rehears'd with the Emphasis of a wretched Poet.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

Somethings are insupportable if they are but indifferent, as Poetry, Musick, Painting, and Publick Speeches.
What a Punishment is it to hear a cold Declamation deliver'd with Pomp and Solemnity, and indifferent Verses repeated with all the Emphasis of a bad Poet!
[Curll ed. (1713)]

Some things won't bear a Mediocrity, as Poetry, Musick, Painting and Oratory.
What a cruel Torture is it to hear a dull Declamation delivered with Pomp and Solemnity, or bad Verses rehearsed with the Emphasis of a wretched Poet!
[Browne ed. (1752)]

In certain things mediocrity is unbearable, as in poetry, music, painting, and eloquence. How we are tortured when we hear a dull soliloquy delivered in a pompous tone, or indifferent verses read with all the emphasis of a wretched poet!
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

There are some things that will not bear mediocrity; poetry, music, painting, oratory.
[tr. Lee (1903)]

Goncourt, The Brothers -- Idées et sensations (1866)

Dave — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:54:53 +0000

A painting in a museum probably hears more foolish remarks than anything else in the world .

[Ce qui entend le plus de bêtises dans le monde est peut-être un tableau de musée.]

The Brothers Goncourt - Edmond (1822-96) & Jules (1830-70), French writers [a.k.a. J.E. de Goncourt]
Idées et sensations (1866)
(Source)

Often mis-cited to just Edmond. Alternate translations:

"A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world."
"What hears the most stupid remarks in the world is perhaps a painting in a museum." [Source]
"Perhaps what hears the most nonsense in the world is a museum painting." [Source]

Sinclair, Upton -- Mammonart, ch. 2 “Who Owns the Artists?” (1925)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 20:46:37 +0000

All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.

As commentary on the above, we add, that when artists or art critics make the assertion that art excludes propaganda, what they are saying is that their kind of propaganda is art, and other kinds of propaganda are not art. Orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is the other fellow’s doxy.

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) American writer, journalist, activist, politician
Mammonart, ch. 2 “Who Owns the Artists?” (1925)
(Source)

Maslow, Abraham -- Toward a Psychology of Being (1968 ed.)

Dave — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 01:48:55 +0000

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) American psychologist
Toward a Psychology of Being (1968 ed.)

Reynolds, Joshua -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:36:59 +0000

A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.

Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) British painter, critic
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in Bolster's Quarterly Magazine (Jul 1827)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3

Dave — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:28:07 +0000

Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture, or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Wealth,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 3
(Source)

Based on a course of lectures, "The Conduct of Life," delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).

Stern, G. B. -- Paris France, Part I (1940)

Dave — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:04:34 +0000

One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come.

G. B. Stern (1890-1973) British writer [Gladys Bronwyn Stern]
Paris France, Part I (1940)