Genius is the capacity for productive reaction against one’s training.
BERNARD BERENSONGovernment is the art of the momentary feasible, of the least bad attainable, and not of the rationally most desirable.
More Bernard Berenson Quotes
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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 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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From childhood on I have had the dream of life lived as a sacrament… the dream implied taking life ritually as something holy.
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In figure painting, the type of all painting, I have endeavoured to set forth that the principal if not sole source of life enchantments are Tactile Values, Movement and Space Composition.
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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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Not what man knows but what man feels, concerns art. All else is science.
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I wonder whether art has a higher function than to make me feel, appreciate, and enjoy natural objects for their art value?
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Miracles happen to those who believe in them.
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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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[Describing his house:] It is a library with living rooms attached.
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German is of stone, limestone, pudding stone, marble, granite even, and so to a considerable degree is English, whereas French is bronze and gives out a metallic resonance with tones that neither German nor English tolerate.
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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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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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International affairs will be placed on a better footing when it is understood that there is no way of punishing a people for the crimes of its rulers.
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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.
BERNARD BERENSON