Abiding Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perpetual modernism is the measure of merit in every work of art.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, which make up one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immutable. This…

— Charles Baudelaire

Real merit requires as much labor, to be placed in a true light, as humbug to be elevated to an unworthy eminence; only the…

— Francis Alexander Durivage

Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.

— Charles Baudelaire

Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal.

— Egon Schiele

A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study…

— Ben Shahn

Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and continuous observations. By persistent, I mean not only continuous work, but also not giving…

— Vincent Van Gogh

“There is something lamentable, degrading, and almost insane in pursuing the visionary schemes of past ages with dogged determination, in paths of learning which…

— Henry Dircks

The timelessness of art is its capacity to represent the transformation of endless becoming into being.

— Lewis Mumford

“A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.”

— Joseph Conrad

Every work of art is an abstraction from time; it denies the reality of change and decay and death.

— Lewis Mumford

To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.

— Joseph Goebbels