Quotes: Walter Bagehot

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

–– Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), British journalist, essayist, political analyst, and economist 

Quotes: Buckminster Fuller

"Everyone is born an inventor."

–– Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), American architect, designer, inventor, futurist and writer 

via Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 108

Quotes: Charles Eames

"Eventually everything connects –– people, ideas, objects." 

–– Charles Eames (1907-1978), American designer, architect, and filmmaker 

via Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 108 

Quotes: Georges Perec

"You must set about it more slowly, almost stupidly. Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most colourless."

–– Georges Perec (1936-1982), French author 

via: Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 108

Quotes: Unknown

"To get more out of things, do less." 

–– Unknown 

via: Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 86.

Quotes: Peter Jackson

"Cultures are maps of meaning through which the world is made intelligible." 

–– Peter Jackson (b. 1955), British human geographer 

Source: National Geographic issue 1999

via: Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 85.

Quotes: Alanis Morissette

"There's no way around pain. That's part of the charm of being alive." 

–– Alanis Morissette (b. 1974), Canadian singer, songwriter, and actress 

Source: Brad Wheeler. 'The Divine Ms. M.', The Globe and Mail, Saturday July 25, 2020; p.P1.

Quotes: Confucius

"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." 

–– Confucius (551 BCE - 479 BCE), Chinese philosopher and politician 

via: Sketchbook 12, 2010, p. 44.

Quotes: Beth Pickens

"Our capacity to grieve is connected to our capacity to love." 

–– Beth Pickens, American arts consultant, author and counsellor 

via: Beth Pickens. Make Your Art No Matter What. San Francisco: Chronicle Press, 2021; p. 33.

** If you are an artist, I highly recommend this book.

Quotes: W.H. Auden

"To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention ... on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem ... or the True God ... that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying." 

–– W.H. Auden (1907-1973), British-born American poet 

via Nitch.com

Quotes: Michelangelo

"It is well with me only when I have a chisel in my hand." 

–– Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian sculptor, painter, and architect

Quotes: 14th Century Proverb

"Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow." 

–– 14th Century Proverb 

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p.150. 

Quotes: Linda Montgomery

"When you do any kind of creative work there is an energy to it. This energy is made up of everything that is you, your personality, your life experience, the books you have read, the things that you are drawn to as a human being. This energy gives the work life and this is what people respond to when they see it. When someone copies you, their work will not have this same life or energy. It will not have the essence of you and consequently it will have a flatness to it." 

–– Linda Montgomery, French-born Canadian illustrator, OCADU professor

Source: August 5, 2010 kerismith.com 

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 149

Quotes: Mahatma Gandhi

"There's more to life than increasing its speed." 

–– Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Indian lawyer, writer, and social activist 

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 146.

Quotes: Bertrand Russell

"It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly." 

–– Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher, logician, and social critic 

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 140.

Quotes: Dieter Rams

"Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful."

–– Dieter Rams (b. 1932), German Industrial Designer 

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 120. 

Quotes: Patti Smith

"When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. "I can't do this," I said. "I don't know what to say."

"Say anything," he said. "You can't make a mistake when you improvise."

"What if I mess it up? What if I screw up the rhythm?"

"You can't," he said. "It's like drumming. If you miss a beat, you create another."

"In this simple exchange, Sam taught me the secret of improvisation, one that I have accessed my whole life."

–– Patti Smith (b. 1946), American writer, poet, singer-songwriter and musician 

Source: Patti Smith. Just Kids. New York: HarperCollins Books, 2010; p. 185. re: writing the play Cowboy Mouth with the American playwright Sam Shepard. 

Quotes: John Cage

"There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing."

–– John Cage (1912-1992), American composer, writer and artist 

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 117

Quotes: Rebecca Solnit

"It's curious, in the chaos of conversations about what we ought to do to save the world, how seldom sheer modesty comes up - living smaller, staying closer [to home], having less - especially for us in the ranks of the privileged. We are going to have to stay home a lot more in the future. ... From outer space, the privileged of this world must look like ants in an anthill that's been stirred with a stick: everyone constantly rushing around in cars and planes for work and pleasure, for meetings, jobs, conferences, vacations and more. This is bad for the planet, but it's not so good for us either. Most of the people I know regard with bemusement or even chagrin the harried, scattered lives they lead."

–– Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), American author 

via The Globe and Mail, 'Social Studies,' Friday November 14, 2008. 

Source: Orion Magazine

Quotes: Arthur Schopenhauer

"Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other."

–– Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German Philosopher 

Quotes: Walter Darby Bannard

 "Art comes from a place that is way deeper than words and ideas and things. It goes out to the same deep place in the viewer. The work itself is the point of contact, the spark that jumps between the poles. It yields a special kind of recognition and pleasure, but it does not submit to rational explication."

–– Walter Darby Bannard (1934-2016), American abstract painter. 

Quote from Artbroken: What Art Is and How We Stopped Making It (2007 talk)

Quotes: Anne Hines

"Someone once told me that we move when it becomes less painful than staying where we are." 

–– Anne Hines, Canadian writer and minister 

Quote from Anne Hines. The Spiral Garden.

Quotes: Albert Einstein

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist 

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 59

Quotes: Walter Bagehot

"No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation." 

–– Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), British journalist, essayist, political analyst, and economist  

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 35

Quotes: Joshua C. Taylor

"The idea that prompted the work of an artist should continue to grow and have meaning for him after the work of art was complete; in the same way, the idea gleaned from the work of art must continue to expand in the consciousness of the viewer. The work of art serves only as a bridge, a link between a higher and lower consciousness, and must not be given value simply for itself. A work is as good as what it evokes, regardless of how its technical means might be discussed from other viewpoints. The true artist is always greater than the work he produces; the work simply provides a glimpse of his immortal soul. ... no work should be considered complete, but only a marker on the road to further spiritual knowledge." 

–– Joshua C. Taylor (1917-1981), American art historian, museum director and author 

Source: J. Turner. Nineteenth Century Theories of Art, p. 123-124.

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p.32. 

Quotes: Japanese proverb

"The barn has burned down. Now I can see the moon." 

–– Japanese proverb 

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 28.

Quotes: Friedrich Nietzsche

"One must have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star."

–– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German poet and philosopher

via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 27.

Quotes: Jane Przybysz

"Saturn returns to the same place in the sky every 30 years, and "Saturn return" is a phrase used to describe 30-year cycles in the life of an individual. These are times characterized by an intense period of self-examination, followed by a re-focusing as the person enters a new phase of maturity." 

–– Jane Przybysz, Polish American museum director 

Source: Surface Design Journal, Summer 2007, p. 53 

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 25

Quotes: William Blake

"In the universe there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." 

–– William Blake (1757-1827), British poet, painter, and printmaker

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 24

Quotes: Elias Canetti

"In the best times of my life I always think I am making room, even more room in me. Here I shovel away snow, there I raise aloft a piece of fallen sky; there are superfluous lakes, I let them run out (I save the fish), overgrown forests, I drive crowds of apes into them, everything is astir, but there's never enough room, I never ask why, I never feel why, I just have to keep making room, on and on, and as long as I can do so, I merit my life." 

–– Elias Canetti (1905-1994), Bulgarian-born novelist

via: Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 11

Quotes: Ernest Hemingway

"I learned never to empty the well, but always to stop when there was still something in the deep part of the well and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it." 

–– Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), American writer and journalist