QuoteProject
A great artist is a great man in a great child.
Victor Hugo
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

A great artist embodies the purity and creativity of a child while maintaining the depth and responsibility of an adult.

This quote by Victor Hugo suggests that true artistry combines the imaginative and uninhibited nature of childhood with the wisdom and experience that come with adulthood. It implies that great artists are able to tap into their inner child, allowing them to create work that is both profound and original, reflecting the best qualities of both stages of life.

Themes

ArtistCreativityChildhoodWisdomArtistry

In practice

Example use cases

Use this quote when discussing the importance of nurturing creativity in children.

More from Victor Hugo

It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky... a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe.
Victor HugoRead
When two mouths, made sacred by love, draw near to each other to create, it is impossible, that above that ineffable kiss there should not be a thrill in the immense mystery of the stars.
Victor HugoRead
At that moment of love, a moment when passion is absolutely silent under omnipotence of ecstasy, Marius, pure seraphic Marius, would have been more capable of visiting a woman of the streets than of raising Cosette’s dress above the ankle. Once on a moonlit night, Cosette stopped to pick up something from the ground, her dress loosened and revealed the swelling of her breasts. Marius averted his eyes.
Victor HugoRead
Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.
Victor HugoRead
Taste is the common sense of genius.
Victor HugoRead
Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!
Victor HugoRead

Similar quotes

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
Vincent Van GoghRead
It's a great thing that the United States has given the rest of the world - no other country has given such great popular music to the Far East and Europe. When I play those great countries, a lot of times, the audience starts singing the songs with me. They know them. They love them.
Tony BennettRead
It's true the punk fashion itself was iconographic: rips and dirt, safety pins, zips, slogans, and hairstyles. These motifs were so iconic in themselves - motifs of rebellion.
Vivienne WestwoodRead
The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.
Susan SontagRead
I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It's astonishing. I always wished that I could do that.
Francis Ford CoppolaRead
The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men.
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.