He had not remembered her name, but he had seen her dance — had been carried away and fascinated by the supreme art that can make you forget art.
We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.
Like great works, deep feelings always mean more than they are conscious of saying.
If the world were clear, art would not exist.
Ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life.
Art is the activity that exalts and denies simultaneously. "No artist tolerates reality," says Nietzsche.
The artist reconstructs the world to his plan.
Art, at least, teaches us that man cannot be explained by history alone and that he also finds a reason for his existence in the order of nature.
The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.