Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!
Leo TolstoyRead
Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art is the act of conveying feelings and experiences through external expressions.
In this quote, Leo Tolstoy emphasizes that art is fundamentally about the communication of emotions and experiences. An artist revisits a significant feeling within themselves and utilizes various forms of expression—such as painting, music, or writing—to share that feeling with others, making art a deeply personal yet communal experience.
Themes
ArtEmotionExpressionCommunicationExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During an art class, a teacher references this quote to illustrate the importance of emotional expression in students' work.
More from Leo Tolstoy
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It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
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Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.
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A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
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Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and all the agonies of the soul, but for all time his tormenting tragedy is, and will be, the tragedy of the bedroom.
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