“The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind.”
Art“My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle.”
Religion“The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind.”
Art“The Christian fear of the pagan outlook has damaged the whole consciousness of man.”
Fear“Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”
Knowledge“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”
Life“Ours is an excessively conscious age. We know so much, we feel so little.”
Age“The fairest thing in nature, a flower, still has its roots in earth and manure.”
Nature“Loud peace propaganda makes war seem imminent.”
Peace“The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can't wake up.”
Dreams“Men and women should stay apart, till their hearts grow gentle towards one another again.”
Women“All vital truth contains the memory of all that for which it is not true.”
Truth“I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts, or my thoughts the result of my dreams.”
Dreams“In every living thing there is the desire for love.”
Love“I can't bear art that you can walk round and admire. A book should be either a bandit or a rebel or a man in the crowd.”
Art“The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread.”
Beauty“Since obscenity is the truth of our passion today, it is the only stuff of art - or almost the only stuff.”
Art“A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.”
Religion“Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.”
Change“The human consciousness is really homogeneous. There is no complete forgetting, even in death.”
Death“Sex and beauty are inseparable, like life and consciousness. And the intelligence which goes with sex and beauty, and arises out of sex and beauty, is intuition.”
Beauty“It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.”
Religion