Great ages of art come only when a widespread creative…

How is it that in the so-called barbarian ages art was understood, whereas in our age of progress exactly the opposite is true?

— Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Incapacity to appreciate certain types of beauty may be the condition sine qua non for the appreciation of another kind; the greatest capacity both…

— George Santayana

It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse.

— Max Nordau

From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very…

— Carl Jung

I cannot escape from the conclusion that the great ages of progress have depended upon a small number of individuals of transcendent ability.

— Bertrand Russell

Nations in their great ages have not been great in art or science, but in art and science.

— Jacob Bronowski

There are five great ages of man - five moments when you need to reevaluate everything, clear out the cupboard and the wardrobe, and…

— A. A. Gill

All the great ages have been ages of belief.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The great ages did not contain the best talent, they wasted less.

— T. S. Eliot

I feel a little as if the Buddhism is creeping back, but I mention all this simply in order to illustrate that there is,…

— Quentin S. Crisp

Creativity shouldn't be seen as something otherworldly. It shouldn't be thought of as a process reserved for artists and inventors and other 'creative types.'…

— Jonah Lehrer

There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute dissatisfaction into a creative…

— Eric Hoffer

“I have long considered the creative impulse to be a visit-a thing of grace, perhaps. Not commanded, owned, so much as awaited, prepared for.…

— Loreena McKennitt

“In life, there are brief and momentary opportunities that ask us to assert our existence. Although a creative impulse, they can be destructive, because…

— Kamand Kojouri

One recalls how much the creative impulse of the best-sellers depends upon self-pity. It is an emotion of great dramatic potential.

— V. S. Pritchett