My mind and fingers have worked like the damned. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them. I devour them with fury.
Franz LisztRead
Supreme serenity still remains the Ideal of great Art. The shapes and transitory forms of life are but stages toward this Ideal, which Christ's religion illuminates with His divine light.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Great art aspires to achieve a state of supreme calmness and beauty, inspired by divine principles.
This quote by Franz Liszt suggests that the ultimate goal of art is to reach a state of supreme serenity, a profound peace that transcends the chaos of life. He implies that the various forms and experiences of life are merely stepping stones towards this ideal, and that Christ's teachings provide illumination and guidance in this pursuit of artistic excellence and spiritual fulfillment.
Themes
ArtSerenityIdealLifeChristianityBeautyDivine
In practice
Example use cases
During an art exhibition, one might quote this to emphasize the spiritual nature of the artwork on display.
More from Franz Liszt
All quotes βIt is my fervent wish and my greatest ambition to leave a work with a few useful instructions for the pianists after me.
Franz LisztRead
Music is the heart of life." She speaks love; "without it, there is no possible good and with it everything is beautiful.
Franz LisztRead
For the virtuoso, musical works are in fact nothing but tragic and moving materializations of his emotions; he is called upon to make them speak, weep, sing and sigh, to recreate them in accordance with his own consciousness. In this way he, like the composer, is a creator, for he must have within himself those passions that he wishes to bring so intensely to life.
Franz LisztRead
I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other masterworks as well, stand in no further need of my services.
Franz LisztRead
Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places - like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal.
Franz LisztRead
Similar quotes
Speaking for myself, art differs from writing in that I never know what I'm going to paint until I paint it, so it's almost like automatic writing. A writer, on the other hand, can't help but know what he's going to write, because the activity demands a degree of premeditation.
William S. BurroughsRead
This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling, or about politics and idea, is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world.
Richard PowersRead
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
James M. BarrieRead
Without foundations, there can be no fashion.
Christian DiorRead
I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot.
Virginia WoolfRead
It's no accident that my first novel was called Americana. This was a private declaration of independence, a statement of my intention to use the whole picture, the whole culture.
Don DelilloRead