Bernard Berenson Quotes
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Art, in the widest sense of the word, is the instrument Hellenism has used and would use for that purpose. All the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visual arts, the theatre, must work singly and together to create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society, and its masterpiece, the free man.
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Not what man knows but what man feels, concerns art. All else is science.
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Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.
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The Renaissance had resulted in the emancipation of the individual, in making him feel that the universe had no other purpose than his happiness. This brought an entirely new answer to the question, 'Why should I do this or that?' It used to be, 'Because self-instituted authority command you.' The answer now was, 'Because it is good for men.' In this lies our greatest debt to the Renaissance, that it instituted the welfare of men as the end of all action.
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A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the oneself that there is no self left to die.
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Life has taught me that it is not for our faults that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities.
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We usually meet all of our relatives only at funerals where somebody always observes: "Too bad we can't get together more often".
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I am only a picture-taster, the way others are wine-or tea-tasters.
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Art is mind and heart and touch as much and more than it is mere instrument, technique - without which however it cannot exist at all.
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I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, begging passerby to drop their unused minutes into it.
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I never felt that there was anything enviable in youth. I cannot recall that any of us, as youths, admired our condition to excess or had a desire to prolong it.
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There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learnt to separate them.
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Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope.
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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?
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Genius is the capacity for productive reaction against one's training.
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Literature in its most comprehensive sense is the autobiography of humanity.
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It makes me happy to encounter goodness, love of work, humane intelligence, and people no matter at what kind of job, be it ever so humble, or ever so exalted, who do it well and con amore.
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I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.
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Between truth and the search for it, I choose the second.