Following are some quotes that I have come across in my reading that I wish to share with you. The books in which I gathered these quotes are listed on the Links and Resources page.

 

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
- Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

"Carving is a source of joy to the artist… To attack the raw material, gradually to extract a shape out of it following one's own desire, or, sometimes, the inspiration of the material itself: this gives the sculptor great joy. In carving, material and thought are linked by the hand alone; thus the raw material is imbued with a warmth of feeling directly drawn from the artist's nature."
-Aristide Maillol1861-1944

"If you hear a voice within you saying, 'You are not a painter,' then by all means paint, boy, and that voice will be silenced."
-Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." - Martha Graham

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."
-Leo Tolstoy

"When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water. Well, I've tried to express just that. If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit."
- Constantin Brancusi 1876-1957

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."
-Albert Einstein, 1898-1986

"The deepest and most lifelike emotion has been expressed, and that is the reason they have taken so long to execute." - Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606-1669

"Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function. The first aims at pleasing the senses, the second has a spiritual vitality which for me is more moving and goes deeper than the senses."
- Henry Moore

"What measure is there, other than the fact that at 'one' point in your life you trusted a feeling. You have to trust that feeling and then continue trusting yourself."
- Philip Guston, 1913-1980

"Create like God, command like a king, work like a slave."
- Constantin Brancusi, 1876-1957

"Henceforth, when you carve, never see the form in length, but always in thickness. Never consider a surface except as the extremity of volume, as the point, more or less large, which directs towards you. In that way you will acquire the science of modeling."
-Constant of Auguste Rodin, 1901-1966

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
-Albert Einstein, 1898-1986

"If man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle."
-Albrecht Durer, 1471-1528

"I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way things that I had no words for."
- Georgia O'Keeffe, 1901-1966

"You do make sculpture because you like wood. That is absurd. You make sculpture because the wood allows you to express something that another material does not allow you to."
- Louise Bourgeois, 1911-?

"Man learns while he sees and what he learns influences what he sees."
-Edward Hall, 19th century

"Come quickly. You mustn't miss the dawn. It will never be just like this again."
- Georgia O'Keeffe

"Sketch quickly with light strokes on your pad (which you should always have with you) and when it is full, start another, never rubbing out but keeping all carefully, because the forms and motions of the bodies are so infinitely various that they cannot possibly be retained in the memory. Therefore preserve your sketches, for they are your assistants and your masters."
- Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452-1519

"Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them."
- Constantin Brancusi, 1876-1957

"If I think, everything is lost."
- Paul Cezanne, 1839-1906

"Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't the time, like to have a friend takes time."
- Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986

"Try to reduce everything you see to the utmost simplicity. That is, let nothing but the things which are of the utmost importance to you have any place… there are lots of clever people who can paint 'anything' but lacking the seeing power, paint nothing worth while… Seeing is not such an easy thing as it is supposed to be."
- Robert Henri, 1865-1929

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
-Albert Einstein

"Do not fear mistakes, there are none."
-Miles Davis