Expression Quotes - page 5

The labouring poor, to use a vulgar expression, seem always to live from hand to mouth. Their present wants employ their whole whole attention, and they seldom think of the future. Even when they have an opportunity of saving they seldom exercise it, but all that is beyond their present neccessities goes, generally speaking, to the ale house. (Thomas Malthus)
The purest expression of the doctrine of Liberalism was probably that of Benjamin Constant. View quote
Francis Parker Yockey
Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to "sexual impurity" or has a tendency "to excite lustful thoughts". This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win. View quote
William O. Douglas
From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war. View quote
Margot Asquith
When God's hand is bent to strike, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination. View quote
John Donne
What is writing but an expression of my own life? View quote
Zane Grey
The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the End of expression (the Drama) has been made a means. View quote
Richard Wagner
Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes 'life'. I recognized that the equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites. View quote
Piet Mondrian
This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and color. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and color, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary color. View quote
Piet Mondrian
I'm not a pessimist. Maybe I don't have a primitive feeling of happiness, that is true. Sometimes my color is happy but not the expression. View quote
Karel Appel
Art, and, above all, music, has a fundamental function, which is to catalyze the sublimation that it can bring about through all means of expression. It must aim through fixations which are landmarks, to draw [one] towards a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect. If a work of art succeeds in this undertaking even for a single moment, it attains its goal. (Iannis Xenakis)
Can you also, Lucullus, affirm that there is any power united with wisdom and prudence which has made, or, to use your own expression, manufactured man? What sort of a manufacture is that? Where is it exercised? when? why? how? View quote
Cicero
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human. View quote
Viktor Frankl
I find above all that the expression, "atonal music," is most unfortunate - it is on a par with calling flying "the art of not falling," or swimming "the art of not drowning." View quote
Arnold Schoenberg
A series of powers are at work within the great stream of Expressionism who have no outward similarity to one another but a common direction of thrust, namely the intention to give expression to things of the psyche [Seelisches] through form alone. View quote
Max Ernst
Donald Judd spoke of a 'neutral' surface, but what is meant? Neutrality must involve some relationship (to other ways of painting, thinking?) He would have to include these in his work to establish the neutrality of that surface. He also used 'non' or 'not' – expressive – this is an early problem – a negative solution or – expression of new sense – which can help one into – what one has not known. 'Neutral' expresses an intention. View quote
Jasper Johns
Merz art strives for immediate expression by shortening the path from intuition to visual manifestation of the artwork.... they will receive my new work as they always have when something new presents itself: with indignation and screams of scorn. View quote
Kurt Schwitters
The full expression of personality depends upon its being inflated by social prestige; it is a social privilege. View quote
Simone Weil
He [the artist in general] ought to have 'these powerful organs of expression' - colour and chiaroscuro - entirely at his command, that he may use them in every possible form, as well as that he may do with the most perfect freedom; therefore, whether he wishes to make the subject of a joyous, solemn, or meditative character, by flinging over it the cheerful aspect which the sun bestows, by a proper disposition of shade, or by the appearances that beautify its arising or its setting, a true "General Effect" should never be lost sight of. View quote
John Constable
To protect the right of expression is the central part of an artist's activity... In China many essential rights are lacking, and I wanted to remind people of this. View quote
Ai Weiwei
My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall. Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious. I don't think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate art from politics is itself a very political intention. (Ai Weiwei)
If there is no freedom of expression, then the beauty of life is lost. Participation in a society is not an artistic choice, it's a human need. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself. View quote
Ai Weiwei
I think it's a responsibility for any artist to protect freedom of expression and to use any way to extend this power. View quote
Ai Weiwei
Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility. View quote
Ai Weiwei