The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer...No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind.
Henry JamesRead
It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art enriches life and gives it significance, with no alternative that matches its impact.
In this quote, Henry James emphasizes the vital role art plays in enhancing our lives by infusing them with meaning, interest, and beauty. He suggests that art is irreplaceable in its ability to provide depth to our experiences and urges us to appreciate its transformative power.
Themes
ArtLifeBeautyImportanceCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education, you might quote James to highlight how art shapes our lives.
More from Henry James
All quotes →What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Henry JamesRead
Never say you know the last word about any human heart.
Henry JamesRead
I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.
Henry JamesRead
We care what happens to people only in proportion as we know what people are.
Henry JamesRead
A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see--that’s my idea of happiness.
Henry JamesRead
Similar quotes
Artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. _x000D_ They are supersensitive. _x000D_ They keel over like canaries in coal mines filled with poison gas, _x000D_ long before more robust types realize that any danger is there.
Kurt VonnegutRead
You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.
Cab CallowayRead
Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.
Joseph BrodskyRead
There is but one art, to omit.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
My drawings are the result of my sculpture.
Auguste RodinRead
When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.
Lucian FreudRead