Library Quotes by Bernard Berenson

The ultimate justification of the work of art is to help the spectator to become a work of art himself.

— Bernard Berenson

Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope.

— Bernard Berenson

I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, begging passerby to drop their unused minutes into it.

— Bernard Berenson

I would I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours.

— Bernard Berenson

Literature in its most comprehensive sense is the autobiography of humanity.

— Bernard Berenson

From childhood on I have had the dream of life lived as a sacrament... the dream implied taking life ritually as something holy.

— Bernard Berenson

The artist, depicting man disdainful of the storm and stress of life, is no less reconciling and healing than the poet who, while endowing…

— Bernard Berenson

The Renaissance had resulted in the emancipation of the individual, in making him feel that the universe had no other purpose than his happiness.…

— Bernard Berenson

Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain…

— Bernard Berenson

I walk in the garden, I look at the flowers and shrubs and trees and discover in them an exquisiteness of contour, a vitality…

— Bernard Berenson

“A complete life may be one ending in so full identification with the non-self that there is no self to die.”

— Bernard Berenson

Enemies could become the best companions. Companionship is based on a common interest, and the greater the interest the closer the companionship. What makes…

— Bernard Berenson