Quote

I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.

William Morris

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Morris
Age: 62 †
Born: 1834
Born: March 24
Died: 1896
Died: October 3
Wilcumestowe
William M. Morris
Work
Towards
Pleasurable
Much
Exercise
Producing
Something
Worth
Labour
Hope
Curse
Making
Impulse
Energy
Aim
Art
Destroy
Giving
Satisfaction

More quotes by William Morris

Image
Large or small, [the garden] should be orderly and rich. It should be well fenced from the outside world. It should by no means imitate either the willfulness or the wildness of nature, but should look like a thing never to be seen except near the house. It should, in fact, look like part of the house.
William Morris
Image
...If our houses, or clothes, our household furniture and utensils are not works of art, they are either wretched makeshifts, or, what is worse, degrading shams of better things.
William Morris
Image
Speak but one word to me.
William Morris
Image
If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all.
William Morris
Image
Don't think too much of style.
William Morris
Image
Art made by the people for the people, as a joy to the maker and the user.
William Morris
Image
A world made to be lost, - A bitter life 'twixt pain and nothing tost.
William Morris
Image
Forsooth, brethren, fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is hell fellowship is life and lack of fellowship is death and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye do them.
William Morris
Image
Forgetfulness of grief I yet may gainIn some wise may come ending to my painIt may be yet the Gods will have me glad!Yet, Love, I would that thee and pain I had!
William Morris
Image
It has become an article of the creed of modern morality that all labour is good in itself -- a convenient belief to those who live on the labour of others. But as to those on whom they live, I recommend them not to take it on trust, but to look into the matter a little deeper.
William Morris
Image
I half wish that I had not been born with a sense of romance and beauty in this accursed age.
William Morris
Image
History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed art has remembered the people, because they created.
William Morris
Image
From out the throng and stress of lies, From out the painful noise of sighs, One voice of comfort seems to rise: It is the meaner part that dies.
William Morris
Image
Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought.
William Morris
Image
With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on.
William Morris
Image
So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die that is to say, civilization will die.
William Morris
Image
Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.
William Morris
Image
Beauty, which is what is meant by art, using the word in its widest sense, is, I contend, no mere accident to human life, which people can take or leave as they choose, but a positive necessity of life.
William Morris
Image
A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works.
William Morris
Image
Late February days and now, at last, Might you have thought that Winter's woe was past So fair the sky was and so soft the air.
William Morris