To realize life in the abstract as noble or beautiful or humane, to set it forth so with radiance upon it, that is civilization in the arts. Shakespeare is the chief modern example of this supreme faculty of mankind. — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit; the schools of painting and sculpture… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
One can re-create what was in the mind of a mathematician a thousand years ago, recapture the truth of the intellect wherever it may… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Agitation is that part of our intellectual life where vitality results; there ideas are born, breed and bring forth. — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Art has a double visage: it looks before and after. Romance is its forward-looking face. The germ of growth is in romanticism. Formalism, on… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
"Old times" never come back and I suppose it's just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year,… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Always begin anew with the day, just as nature does. It is one of the sensible things that nature does. — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Shakespeare is, essentially, the emanation of the Renaissance. The overflow of his fame on the Continent in later years was but the sequel of… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
You must find the ideas that have some promise in them... It is not enough to just have ideas. — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Mankind is the grandest and surest artist of all, and history as it clarifies is, in pure fact, an artistic process, a creation in… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
The poet craves emotion, and feeds the fire that consumes him, and only under this condition is he baptized with creative power. — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First Corollary If you tell the boss you were late for work… — George Edward Woodberry Copy Share Image