Quotes 310: Willa Cather

"If you're an artist and you want to get steadily better at your craft, you need to continually refine your approach to telling the truth." 

– Willa Cather (1873-1947) Pulitzer prize winning American author 

via Sketchbook 7, 2009, p. 73.

Quotes 309: Charles Pierre Baudelaire

"A multitude of small delights constitutes happiness." 

–– Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867), French poet, essayist, art critic, and philosopher 

via Sketchbook 7, 2009, p. 68.

Quotes 308: Gertrude Stein

"Art isn't everything. It's just about everything." 

–– Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), American writer

via Sketchbook 7, 2009, p. 52.

Quotes 307: Colette

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." 

–– Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), French writer

via Sketchbook 7, 2009, p. 52.

Quotes 306: Friedrich Nietzsche

"We have art so that we will not be destroyed by the truth." 

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

via Sketchbook 7, 2009, p. 46

Quotes 305: Stendhal

"To make women truly equal would be the surest sign of civilization, and it would double the intellectual strength of humankind." 

–– Stendhal, pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842), French writer

via Sketchbook 6, 2008, p. 127

Quotes 304: Joseph Campbell

"A sacred space is any space that is set apart from the usual context of life. ... You really don't have a sacred space, a rescue land, until you find somewhere to be that's not a wasteland, some field of action where there is a spring of ambrosia –– a joy that comes from inside, not something external that puts joy into you –– a place that lets you experience your own will and your own intention."

–– Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), American author and professor 

via Sketchbook 6, 2008, p. 121.

Quotes 303: Julia Cameron

"The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist. The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with a few small and scary steps."

–– Julia Cameron (b. 1948), American writer 

via Sketchbook 6, 2008, p. 121

Quotes 302: T.S. Eliot

"The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time." 

–– T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), American-born British author 

via Sketchbook 6, 2008, p. 25

Quotes 301: Amor Towles

"But just as important, a careful accounting of days allows the isolated to note that another year of hardship has been endured; survived; bested. Whether they have found the strength to persevere through a tireless determination or some foolhardy optimism, those 365 hatch marks stand as proof of their indomitability. For after all, if attentiveness should be measured in minutes and discipline measured in hours, then indomitability must be measured in years. Or, if philosophical investigations are not to your taste, then let us simply agree that the wise man celebrates what he can." 

–– Amor Towles (b. 1964), American novelist

Amor Towles. A Gentleman in Moscow. New York: Viking (Penguin Random House), 2016; p. 109-110. 

via Commonplace Book 2020-2021, p. 138

P.S. Today is the 615th day of the pandemic.

Quotes 300: Anne Lamott

"When there is nowhere to go, you realize that most of the time you are racing purposefully from place to place, missing out on how wondrous it all is." 

–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer 

Anne Lamott. Dust, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage. New York: Riverhead Books, 2021; p. 163.

via Commonplace Book 2020-2021, p. 118.

Quotes 299: J. Carl Heywood

"Picasso and Braque and others invented collage early in the 20th century as a way of forcing together visual experiences that didn't belong together, just as our lives are filled with experiences that don't really fit." 

–– J. Carl Heywood (b. 1941), Canadian artist

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 138

Quotes 298: Daniel Hudson Burnham

"Make no little plans." 

–– Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912), American architect

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 130

Quotes 297: Oliver Schroer

"Embrace any mistake and turn it into something cool." 

–– Oliver Schroer (1956-2008), Canadian instrumentalist and composer 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 130

Quotes 296: Carl Rogers

"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." 

–– Carl Rogers (1902-1987), American psychologist

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 99

Quotes 295: Henry Moore

"The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is –– it must be something you cannot possibly do." 

–– Henry Moore (1898-1986), British artist, as told to poet Donald Hall

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 99

Quotes 294: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

"An interesting plainness is the most difficult and precious thing to achieve." 

–– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), German American architect

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 96

Quotes 293: Isamu Noguchi

"We are a landscape of all we have seen." 

–– Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Japanese American artist and landscape designer 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 97

Quotes 292: Louis Pasteur

"Chance favours the prepared mind." 

–– Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French chemist and microbiologist 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 60

Quotes 291: Ann Davies

"The greatest poverty is boredom. The greatest hell is not having a goal." 

–– Ann Davies 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 58

Quotes 290: Ovid

"In our play we reveal what kind of people we are." 

–– Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō, known in English as Ovid (43 BC -17 AD), Roman poet 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 58

Quotes 289: Charles Handy

"Necessity may be the mother of invention, but curiosity is the mother of discovery." 

–– Charles Handy (b. 1932), Irish writer and philosopher (quote from The Age of Unreason) 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 56

Quotes 288: Pierre Nora

"The quest for memory is the search for one's history ... Modern memory is, above all, archival. It relies entirely on the materiality of the trace, the immediacy of the recording, the visibility of the image." 

–– Pierre Nora (b. 1931), French historian 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 56

Quotes 287: J.K. Rowling

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." 

–– J.K. Rowling (b. 1965), British writer 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 54

Quotes 286: Demosthenes

"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." 

–– Demosthenes (384-322 BC), Greek orator 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 54

Quotes 285: Leonard Cohen

"I didn't kill myself when things went wrong, I didn't turn to drugs or teaching."

–– Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 32

Quotes 284: Edgar Allan Poe

"Those who dream by day know many things which escape those who dream only by night." 

–– Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) American writer, poet, editor, and critic 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 32

Quotes 283: Vincent van Gogh

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." 

–– Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Dutch Post-Impressionist painter 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 23

Quotes 282: Bruno Munari

"Simplification is a sign of intelligence, says an ancient Chinese proverb: what cannot be said in a few words, cannot be said in a lot of words either." 

–– Bruno Munari (1907-1998), Italian artist and designer 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 19 

Quotes 284: Friedrich Nietzsche

"We only hear questions that we are able to answer." 

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

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 32 

Quotes 281: Author unknown

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." 

–– Author unknown 

via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 10