“The motto which should be written over every School of Art is:  ‘Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’…This is the beginning of all art…be pure in spirit.”  D. H. Lawrence.

“Art is a human activity, whose purpose is the transmission of the highest and best feelings to which men have attained.”  Tolstoy

“Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.  Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may convey, with as little mixture of the alien and external as possible?”  Virginia Woolf

“The classical ballet…is capable of emanating a particular emotional charge, a current of spirituality that goes straight to the spectator’s heart.”  Natalia Makarova

“The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.  It is the source of all true art and science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.  To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” Einstein

“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.”   Magritte

“What moves men of genius or rather what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”  Delacroix

“Painting is an attempt to come to terms with life.  There are as many solutions as there are human beings.”  George Tooker

“To dance truly, in a surrendered manner, is a religious practice.  It is the prayer of the physical form, and its expression can range from a painful pleading for union with one’s inner wholeness, to the ecstatic and mindless celebration of the Living Presence of the Life Force as it spontaneously moved through the body.” Elliot Sobel

“An artist…must be unprejudiced toward, or unaffected by, the actual nature of what he is observing.  He sees, without self-conscious effort, beauty where superficial minds see only ugliness.  Charles Burchfield

“The experience of doing anything well—from the minor scale to the Hammerklavier Sonata—is an irreplaceable event of the spirit.”  Robert Grudin

“In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is greater than love?”  Igor Stravinsky

“Every stroke of my brush is the overflow of my inmost heart.”  Sengai, 17th century Zen master

“In dance…the body…is the instrument for the transcendent power, and this power is encountered in the dance directly, instantly and without intermediaries.  The body is experienced as having a spiritual, inner dimension as a channel for the descent of the power…it is the aim of the mystics ‘inner dance’ to come face to face with the Silence, the Void…”  Maria-Gabriele Wosien

“The object which is back of every true work of art is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence.  In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.”  Robert Henri

“The motto which should be written over every School of Art is: ‘Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’…This is the beginning of all art…be pure in spirit.” D. H. Lawrence.

“Art is a human activity, whose purpose is the transmission of the highest and best feelings to which men have attained.” Tolstoy

“Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may convey, with as little mixture of the alien and external as possible?” Virginia Woolf

“The classical ballet…is capable of emanating a particular emotional charge, a current of spirituality that goes straight to the spectator’s heart.” Natalia Makarova

“The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” Einstein

“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.” Magritte

“What moves men of genius or rather what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” Delacroix

“Painting is an attempt to come to terms with life. There are as many solutions as there are human beings.” George Tooker

“To dance truly, in a surrendered manner, is a religious practice. It is the prayer of the physical form, and its expression can range from a painful pleading for union with one’s inner wholeness, to the ecstatic and mindless celebration of the Living Presence of the Life Force as it spontaneously moved through the body.” Elliot Sobel

“An artist…must be unprejudiced toward, or unaffected by, the actual nature of what he is observing. He sees, without self-conscious effort, beauty where superficial minds see only ugliness. Charles Burchfield

“The experience of doing anything well—from the minor scale to the Hammerklavier Sonata—is an irreplaceable event of the spirit.” Robert Grudin

“In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is greater than love?” Igor Stravinsky

“Every stroke of my brush is the overflow of my inmost heart.” Sengai, 17th century Zen master

“In dance…the body…is the instrument for the transcendent power, and this power is encountered in the dance directly, instantly and without intermediaries. The body is experienced as having a spiritual, inner dimension as a channel for the descent of the power…it is the aim of the mystics ‘inner dance’ to come face to face with the Silence, the Void…” Maria-Gabriele Wosien

“The object which is back of every true work of art is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.” Robert Henri

“I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the off-spring taken soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appear’d.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.” Walt Whitman