William Morris Quotes on Art (7 Quotes)

Wind, wind thou art sad, art thou kind; Wind, wind, unhappy thou art blind, Yet still thou wanderest the lily-seed to find.

The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art.

I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love. It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigor of the earlier world

If I were asked to say what is at once the most important production of Art and the thing most to be longed for I should answer A beautiful House and if I were further asked to name the production next in importance and the thing next to be longed for I should answer A beautiful Book. To enjoy good houses and good books in self-respect and decent comfort, seems to me to be the pleasurable end towards which all societies of human beings ought now to struggle.

History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.

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.

If you cannot learn to love real art at least learn to hate sham art.