Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.Leo Tolstoy
About This Quote
Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.
Source: What Is Art?
Some Similar Quotes
- Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.
- It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
- Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.
- Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.
- There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
More Quotes By Leo Tolstoy
- I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.
- Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.
- Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}
- I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.
- They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.