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Art does not, like science, set forth a permanent order of nature, the enduring skeleton of law. Two factors primarily determine its works: one is the idea in the mind of the artist, the other is his power of expression and both these factors are extremely variable.

George Edward Woodberry

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George Edward Woodberry
Age: 74 †
Born: 1855
Born: May 12
Died: 1930
Died: January 2
Biographer
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
the United States of America
George E. Woodberry
Nature
Works
Enduring
Two
Expression
Primarily
Power
Law
Factors
Doe
Idea
Extremely
Ideas
Science
Forth
Variable
Mind
Artist
Permanent
Skeleton
Like
Art
Determine
Skeletons
Order
Endure
Variables

More quotes by George Edward Woodberry

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Shakespeare is, essentially, the emanation of the Renaissance. The overflow of his fame on the Continent in later years was but the sequel of the flood of the Renaissance in Western Europe. He was the child of that great movement, and marks its height as it penetrated the North with civilization.
George Edward Woodberry
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Always begin anew with the day, just as nature does. It is one of the sensible things that nature does.
George Edward Woodberry
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The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit the schools of painting and sculpture likewise and, in poetry, the Victorian age or the school of Pope will serve as examples.
George Edward Woodberry
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Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First Corollary If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.
George Edward Woodberry
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Genius is that in which the soul of a race bums at its brightest, revealing and preserving its vision works of art are great and significant in proportion to the clarity and fulness with which they incarnate this vision.
George Edward Woodberry
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Old times never come back and I suppose it's just as well. What comes back is a new morning every day in the year, and that's better.
George Edward Woodberry
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The critic is genius at one remove he is not unlike an actor on the stage, and incarnates in his mind, as the actor embodies in his person, another's work only thus does he understand art, realize it, know it and having arrived at this, his task is done.
George Edward Woodberry
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Who of English speech, bred to the traditions of his race, does not recognize Hamlet in his 'inky cloak' at a glance? Not to know him would argue one's self untaught in the chief glories of his language.
George Edward Woodberry
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The poet craves emotion, and feeds the fire that consumes him, and only under this condition is he baptized with creative power.
George Edward Woodberry
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We foresee no limit to scientific advancement in the future, and in scientific truth there is nothing dead science is always a living and growing body of knowledge but art on the contrary has many times run its course to an end, and exhausted its vital power.
George Edward Woodberry
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What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space!
George Edward Woodberry
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The willingness to take risks is our grasp of faith.
George Edward Woodberry
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To realize life in the abstract as noble or beautiful or humane, to set it forth so with radiance upon it, that is civilization in the arts. Shakespeare is the chief modern example of this supreme faculty of mankind.
George Edward Woodberry
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You may name a bronze statue 'Liberty,' or a painted figure in a city hall 'Commerce,' or a marble form in a temple 'Athene' or 'Venus' but what is really there is only a representation of a single woman.
George Edward Woodberry
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The Greeks, those originators of the intellectual life, fixed for us the idea of the poet. He was a divine man more sacred than the priest, who was at best an intermediary between men and the gods, but in the poet the god was present and spoke.
George Edward Woodberry
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Mankind is the grandest and surest artist of all, and history as it clarifies is, in pure fact, an artistic process, a creation in its fullness of the beautiful soul.
George Edward Woodberry
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My first recollection of hearing Wendell Phillips is from my college days, though of course he was always one of my heroes, and I may have heard him before, for we were an anti-slavery family.
George Edward Woodberry
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Art is expression what is expressed is often the vision of a subtle and powerful soul, and also his experience with his vision and however vivid and skilful he may be in the means of expression, yet it is frequently found that the master-spell in his work is something felt to be indefinable and inexpressible.
George Edward Woodberry
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A marvellous power of expression over language often distinguishes genius but Shakespeare in his phrases seems independent of the bonds of language as of the bonds of metre.
George Edward Woodberry
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I believe that ideal character in its perfection is potentially in every man who is born into the world.
George Edward Woodberry