Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.
History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.
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.
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.
The past is not dead, it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make.
My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another.
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.
A good way to rid one’s self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.
I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.
Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things, the leading passion of my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.
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.
As to the garden, it seems to me its chief fruit is-blackbirds.
Not on one strand are all life’s jewels strung.
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.
The heart desires, the hand refrains. The Godhead fires, the soul attains.
When Socialism comes, it may be in such a form that we won’t like it.
The wind is not helpless for any man’s need, Nor falleth the rain but for thistle and weed.
If you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it.
It is for him that is lonely or in prison to dream of fellowship, but for him that is of a fellowship to do and not to dream.
To happy folkAll heaviest words no more of meaning bearThan far-off bells saddening the Summer air.