Ananda Coomaraswamy Quotes

12 quotes in 200 categories

• We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created…
• Myth embodies the nearest approach to absolute truth that can be stated in words.
• The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.
• No creature can attain a higher grade of nature without ceasing to exist.
• The man incapable of contemplation cannot be an artist, but only a skillful workman.
• The vocation, whether it be that of the farmer or the architect, is a function; the exercise of this function as regards the man himself…
• It is the natural instinct of a child to work from within outwards; "First I think, and then I draw my think." What wasted efforts…
• Man's activity consists in either a making or doing. Both of these aspects of the active life depend for their correction upon the contemplative life…
• All that is best for us comes of itself into our hands-but if we strive to overtake it, it perpetually eludes us.
• The most awkward means are adequate to the communication of authentic experience, and the finest words no compensation for lack of it. It is for…
• Art is nothing tangible. We cannot call a painting 'art' as the words 'artifact' and 'artificial' imply. The thing made is a work of art…
• It is only when the maker of things is a maker of things by vocation, and not merely holding down a job, that the price…

Browse Ananda Coomaraswamy Quotes by Category