It takes a wonderful brain and exquisite senses to produce a few stupid ideas.
George SantayanaRead
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists translate their dreams and visions into reality, reflecting the world around them.
This quote by George Santayana highlights the role of artists as individuals who not only envision different realities and dreams but also choose to acknowledge and represent the world as it is. It suggests that the act of creation involves a consenting agreement to engage with both one's imagination and the tangible aspects of existence, bridging the gap between dreams and reality.
Themes
ArtistDreamerRealityImaginationCreation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote resonates well in an art class discussion about the role of imagination in artistic expression.
More from George Santayana
All quotes βThe working of great institutions is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.
George SantayanaRead
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colours of life in all their purity.
George SantayanaRead
Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection rests on circumstantial evidence.
George SantayanaRead
To feel beauty is a better thing than to understand how we come to feel it. To have imagination and taste, to love the best, to be carried by the contemplation of nature to a vivid faith in the ideal, all this is more, a great deal more, than any science can hope to be.
George SantayanaRead
The vital straining towards an ideal, definite but latent, when it dominates a whole life, may express that ideal more fully than could the best chosen words.
George SantayanaRead
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No art is any good unless you can feel how it's put together. By and large it's the eye, the hand and if it's any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist's body; you can really lean on it.
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