Clive Bell

A rose is the visible result of an infinitude of complicated goings on in the bosom of the earth and in the air above, and similarly a work of art is the product of strange activities in the human mind. ”

All sensitive people agree that there is a peculiar emotion provoked by works of art. ”

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open. ”

Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy. Between aesthetic and religious rapture there is a family alliance. Art and Religion are means to similar states of mind. ”

Genius worship is the inevitable sign of an uncreative age. ”

We have no other means of recognising a work of art than our feeling for it. ”

We all agree now - by 'we' I mean intelligent people under sixty - that a work of art is like a rose. A rose is not beautiful because it is like something else. Neither is a work of art. Roses and works of art are beautiful in themselves. ”

There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless. ”