Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.
JOHN BERGERBy contrast, a woman’s presence… defines what can and cannot be done to her.
More John Berger Quotes
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Japanese art looked closely around screens; Italian Renaissance art surveyed conquered nature through the window or door-frame of a palace.
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The past is the one thing we are not prisoners of. We can do with the past exactly what we wish. What we can’t do is to change its consequences.
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Hair is associated with sexual power. With passion.
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We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.
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Never chain your dogs together with sausages. One must accustom one’s self to be bored.
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This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.
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History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past
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We follow songs in order to be enclosed. We find ourselves inside a message.
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Photographs bear witness to a human choice being exercised in a given situation.
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The human imagination… has great difficulty in living strictly within the confines of a materialist practice or philosophy.
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The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.
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By contrast, a woman’s presence… defines what can and cannot be done to her.
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Whenever he looked he saw the labour of existence; and this labour, recognised as such, was what constituted reality for him. (On Vincent Van Gogh)
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At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism.
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Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities.
JOHN BERGER