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The greatest foe to art is luxury, art cannot live in its atmosphere.
William Morris -
A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.
William Morris
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Not on one strand are all life's jewels strung.
William Morris -
Death have we hated, knowing not what it meant; Life we have loved, through green leaf and through sere, Though still the less we knew of its intent.
William Morris -
I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.
William Morris -
Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.
William Morris -
Artists cannot help themselves; they are driven to create by their nature, but for that nature to truly thrive, we need to preserve the precious habitat in which that beauty can flourish.
William Morris -
Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought.
William Morris
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A pattern is either right or wrong...it is no stronger than its weakest point.
William Morris -
Late February days; and now, at last, Might you have thought that Winter's woe was past; So fair the sky was and so soft the air.
William Morris -
So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.
William Morris -
It is the childlike part of us that produces works of the imagination. When we were children time passed so slow with us that we seemed to have time for everything.
William Morris -
The wind is not helpless for any man's need, Nor falleth the rain but for thistle and weed.
William Morris -
Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.
William Morris
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If you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.
William Morris -
What is an artist but a workman who is determined that, whatever else happens, his work shall be excellent?
William Morris -
There was a knight came riding by In early spring, when the roads were dry; And he heard that lady sing at the noon, Two red roses across the moon.
William Morris -
I half wish that I had not been born with a sense of romance and beauty in this accursed age.
William Morris -
Beauty, which is what is meant by art, using the word in its widest sense, is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life.
William Morris -
O thrush, your song is passing sweet, But never a song that you have sung Is half so sweet as thrushes sang When my dear love and I were young.
William Morris
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By God! I will not tell you more to-day, Judge any way you will - what matters it?
William Morris -
...If our houses, or clothes, our household furniture and utensils are not works of art, they are either wretched makeshifts, or, what is worse, degrading shams of better things.
William Morris -
From out the throng and stress of lies, From out the painful noise of sighs, One voice of comfort seems to rise: "It is the meaner part that dies."
William Morris -
A world made to be lost, - A bitter life 'twixt pain and nothing tost.
William Morris