Quotes About Humanity

The arts are the only things that separate us from the other animals. The arts are not decorative. ... They are essential to our comprehension of consciousness and ourselves.

Art is a staple of mankind... So urgent, so utterly linked with the pulse of feeling that it becomes the singular sign of life when every other aspect of civilization fails.

Art is the means by which we communicate what it feels like to be alive.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

Slavery discourages arts and manufacturing ...[and] every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.

I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking head-on. At the end of the day, people are more important than paintings.

The artist makes art not to save mankind but to save himself. Every benevolent comment by an artist is a fog to cover his tracks, the bloody trail of his assault against reality and others.

Some say art is our highest form of hope. . . . Perhaps it's our only hope.

Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

But what is art other than revealing human nature?

Lord, heap miseries upon us yet entwine our arts with laughters low.

The whole aspect of cinema and film festivals should be a moment to come together and celebrate art and humanity. It would be a shame if there was such a divide.

The arts, as a reflection of human existence at its highest, have always and spontaneously lived up to this demand of plenitude. No mature style of art in any culture has ever been simple.

Art is what separates us from the animals.

What can art really do in the face of atrocity?

All art is a revolt against man's fate.

Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.

We live in constant danger of coming apart. The mystery of why we do not always come apart is the animating tension of all art.

Generations to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked the face of this earth.

I am a result of what has happened on this planet - how could I find the art to say that? I can't, and yet, I am drawn to it because of the enormity of it. That seems really important.

Indifference to the fine arts comes close to barbarism.

People in misery is what most important in art.

Human requirements are the inspiration for art.

We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.