12 Quotes & Sayings By Bernard Berenson

Bernard Berenson was an art historian and author. He was born in Italy and worked in his family's wine estate in Alba, producing his first book in the early 1920s. His many writings covered a wide range of subjects including art history, archaeology, and military history. Berenson was well known to the public and esteemed by the academic world for his style and knowledge.

A complete life may be one ending in so full...
1
A complete life may be one ending in so full identification with the non-self that there is no self to die. Bernard Berenson
2
Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. Bernard Berenson
3
I wonder whether Art has a higher function than to make me feel appreciate and enjoy natural objects for their art value? Bernard Berenson
4
As I got warmed up and felt perfectly at home in talk I heard myself boasting lying exaggerating. Oh not deliberately far from it. It would be unconvivial and dull to stop and arrest the flow of talk and speak only after carefully considering whether I was telling the truth. Bernard Berenson
5
Enemies could become the best companions. Companionship is based on a common interest and the greater the interest the closer the companionship. What makes enemies of people if not the eagerness the passion for the same thing? Bernard Berenson
6
We define genius as the capacity for productive reaction against one's training. Bernard Berenson
7
Governments last as long as the undertaxed can defend themselves against the overtaxed. Bernard Berenson
8
I wish I could stand on a busy corner hat in hand and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours. Bernard Berenson
9
A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the not-self that there is no self left to die. Bernard Berenson
10
Governments last as long as the under-taxed can defend themselves against the over-taxed. Bernard Berenson
11
When everything else physical and mental seems to diminish, the appreciation of beauty is on the increase. Bernard Berenson