The true function of art is to...edit nature and so make it coherent and lovely. The artist is a sort read more

The true function of art is to...edit nature and so make it coherent and lovely. The artist is a sort of impassioned proofreader, blue-penciling the bad spelling of God.

Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved read more

Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved more by changes in society than by his own initiative. Without realizing it, he makes society rather than himself the agent of change. The power he finds in his victimization may lead him to collective action against society, but it also encourages passivity within the sphere of his personal life.

The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but read more

The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.

Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.

Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Any young person who has studied Heidegger; or seen Ionesco's 'plays'; or listened to the 'music' of John Cage; or read more

Any young person who has studied Heidegger; or seen Ionesco's 'plays'; or listened to the 'music' of John Cage; or looked at Andy Warhol's 'paintings'- has experienced that feeling of incredulous puzzlement: But this is nonsense! Can I really be expected to take this seriously?In fact, of course, it is necessary for it to be nonsense; if it made sense, it could be evaluated. The essence of modern intellectual snobbery is the 'emperor's new cloths' approach. Teachers, critics, our self-appointed intellectual elite, make it quite clear to us that if we cannot see the superlative nature of this 'art'- why, it merely shows our ignorance, our lack of sophistication and insight. Of course, they go beyond the storybook emperor's tailors, who dressed their victim in nothing and called it fine garments. The modern tailors dress the emperor in garbage.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.