A man of personality can formulate ideals, but only a man of character can achieve them. Herbert Read More Quotes by Herbert Read More Quotes From Herbert Read Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness. Herbert Read exposure consciousness art It was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties - everything we mean by the word 'culture'. Herbert Read play men mean Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society. Herbert Read differentiation progress degrees Love works miracles in stillness. Herbert Read stillness miracle Poetry is creative expression; Prose is constructive expression... by creative I mean original. In Poetry the words are born or reborn in the act of thinking... There is no time interval between the words and the thought when a real poet writes, both of them happen together, and both the thought and the word are Poetry. Herbert Read real writing mean It was Nietzsche who first made us conscious of the significance of the individual as a term in the evolutionary process-in that part of the evolutionary process which has still to take place. Herbert Read individual literature firsts Works of art must persist as objects of contemplation. Herbert Read contemplation persist art If modern art has produced symbols that are unfamiliar, that was only to be expected. Herbert Read symbols modern art Revolt, it will be said, implies violence; but this is an outmoded, an incompetent conception of revolt. The most effective form of revolt in this violent world we live in is non-violence. Herbert Read violent violence world Once we become conscious of a feeling and attempt to make a corresponding form, we are engaged in an activity which, far from being sincere, is prepared (as any artist if he is sincere will tell you) to moderate feelings to fit the form. The artist's feeling for form is stronger than a formless feeling. Herbert Read stronger artist feelings In order to create it is necessary to destroy; and the agent of destruction in society is the poet. I believe that the poet is necessarily an anarchist, and that he must oppose all organized conceptions of the State, not only those which we inherit from the past, but equally those which are imposed on people in the name of the future. Herbert Read order believe past I can imagine no society which does not embody some method of arbitration. Herbert Read arbitration umpires doe Intellect begins with the observation of nature, proceeds to memorize and classify the facts thus observed, and by logical deduction builds up that edifice of knowledge properly called scienceÂ… But admittedly we also know by feeling, and we can combine the two faculties, and present knowledge in the guise of art. Herbert Read feelings two art But the further step, by means of which a civilization is given its quality or culture, is only attained by a process of cellular division, in the course of which the individual is differentiated, made distinct from and independent of the parent group. Herbert Read independent civilization mean Art is not and never has been subordinate to moral values. Moral values are social values; aesthetic values are human values. Morality seeks to restrain the feelings; art seeks to define them by externalizing them, by giving them significant form. Morality has only one aim - the ideal good; art has quite another aim - the objective truth... art never changes. Herbert Read social-values giving art In general, modern art... has been inspired by a natural desire to chart the uncharted. Herbert Read inspired desire art Art in its widest sense is the extension of the personality: a host of artificial limbs. Herbert Read host personality art What I do deny is that you can build any enduring society without some such mystical ethos. Herbert Read ethos deny literature If we persist in our restless desire to know everything about the universe and ourselves, then we must not be afraid of what the artist brings back from his voyage of discovery. Herbert Read artist desire discovery The assumption is that the right kind of society is an organic being not merely analogous to an organic being, but actually a living structure with appetites and digestions, instincts and passions, intelligence and reason. Herbert Read digestion passion literature
