Quotes About Inspiration

Washington Irving

Washington Irving

If, however, I can by any lucky chance, in these days of evil, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow, if I can now and then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a benevolent view of human nature, and make my reader more in good humor with his fellow beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain.

Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.

Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the poet to become tender and imaginitive in the loneliness of confinement. He banquets upon the honey of his own thoughts, and, like the captive bird, pours forth his soul in melody.

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.

lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to "walk about" into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, which springs from the soul.

Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street... Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.

The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning.

Music is the ultimate teacher.

The artist must be blind to distinction between 'recognized' or 'unrecognized' conventions of form, deaf to the transitory teaching and demands of his particular age.

The artist is not born to a life of pleasure. He must not live idle; he has a hard work to perform, and one which often proves a cross to be borne.

What would it take to make you intervene

The impact of the acute angle of a triangle on a circle is actually as overwhelming in effect as the finger of God touching the finger of Adam in Michelangelo.

That is beautiful which springs from inner need, which springs from the soul

The artist must be blind to "recognized" and "unrecognized" form, deaf to the teachings and desires of his time. His open eyes must be directed to his inner life and his ears must be constantly attuned to the voice of inner necessity.

La intuición con la que nace el artistas es el talento evangélico que no debe enterrar. El artista que no utiliza sus dotes es un esclavo perezoso.

to stand in front of some of his drawings or pictures gives a keener and more spiritual pleasure than any other kind of painting.

The onlooker turns from the artist who has higher ideals and who cannot see his life purpose in an art without aims.

Renk klavye, gözler tokmaklar, ruh ise piyanodur. Sanatç? da piyanoyu çalan eldir. Tu?lara dokunarak ruhta titre?imler yarat?r.

Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.

New eras don't come about because of swords, they're created by the people who wield them.

I need his dreams. Life isn't life without them. And if he can give me the dreams, I think I can hold the rest together.