40 Famous Quotes by Famous Artists to Inspire You

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free — Michelangelo

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration. — Jeffrey Zeldman

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes; work never begun. — Christina Rossetti, Author

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. — Henry David Thoreau

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. — Scott Adams

Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future. — Robert L. Peters

There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it. — Henry Moore

Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. — Steve Jobs

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. — Aristotle

A design isn’t finished until somebody is using it. — Brenda Laurel

The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it. — Banksy

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art. — Wynetka Ann Reynolds

A camel is a horse designed by a committee. — Sir Alec Issigonis

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. — Leonardo da vinci

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. — Twyla Tharp

In nature, light creates the colour. In the picture, colour creates the light. — Hans Hofmann

Creative without strategy is called 'art'. Creative with strategy is called 'advertising'. — Jef I. Richards

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop. — Usman B. Asif

Everything is designed. Few things are designed well. — Brian Reed

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film. — Robert Adams

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. — Pablo Picasso

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. — Stella Adler

Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking. — Ellen Lupton

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things. — Henri Matisse

An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it. — Paul Valéry

Practice safe design: Use a concept. — Petrula Vrontikis

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one. — Charles Horton Cooley

Art is an idea that has found its perfect visual expression. And design is the vehicle by which this expression is made possible. Art is a noun, and design is a noun and also a verb. Art is a product and design is a process. Design is the foundation of all the arts. — Paul Rand

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls! — Ted Grant

For me, design is like choosing what I’m going to wear for the day - only much more complicated and not really the same at all. — Robynne Raye

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep. — Paul Strand

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. — Oscar Wilde

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. — Lewis Carroll

Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships. — Ansel Adams

Art is like masturbation. It is selfish and introverted and done for you and you alone. Design is like sex. There is someone else involved, their needs are just as important as your own, and if everything goes right, both parties are happy in the end. — Colin Wright

I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it. — Author Unknown

One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photos out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photos out of focus are a style. — Author Unknown