41 Inspirational Kenneth Clark Quotes (HISTORIAN)

Top 10 Most Famous Kenneth Clark Quotes (BEST)

“I would say that the surest measure of a man’s or a woman’s maturity is the harmony, style, joy, and dignity he creates in his marriage, and the pleasure and inspiration he provides for his spouse.”
Kenneth Clark

The great artist is a man who finds a new kind of beauty in the world and makes things which embody it. — The great artist is a man who finds a new kind of **beauty** in the world and makes things which embody it.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well. — It is often said that **Leonardo** drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well.

A racist system inevitably destroys and damages human beings; it brutalizes and dehumanizes them, blacks and whites alike.

The way to use life is to do everything though being. — The way to use **life** is to do everything though being.

I don't think that any great work has ever been achieved without a certain amount of suffering. — I don’t think that any great work has ever been achieved without a certain amount of suffering.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos. — I believe in **courtesy**, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people’s feelings by satisfying our own egos.

If art has a mission, it is to furnish evidence of the unity of life. — If art has a mission, it is to furnish evidence of the **unity** of **life**.

Children who are treated as if they are uneducable almost invariably become uneducable. — **Children** who are treated as if they are uneducable almost invariably become uneducable.

7 Inspirational Kenneth Clark Quotes About Life

“I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history.”
Kenneth Clark

We are part of a great whole. All living things are our brothers and sisters.

“Over and above the political, economic, sociological, and international implications of racial prejudices, their major significance is that they place unnecessary burdens upon human beings.”
Kenneth Clark

The greatest gift that human beings possess is curiosity. — The greatest **gift** that human beings possess is curiosity.

“The recognized achievements of some Negroes, despite rigid racial barriers, indicate that society by its prejudices may be depriving itself of valuable contributions from many others. It is now doubtful whether America can afford the luxury of such a waste of human resources.”
Kenneth Clark

Racial prejudices are indication of a disturbed and potentially unstable society.

I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible. — I believe in the God-given **genius** of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible.

9 Motivational Kenneth Clark Quotes About Art

“I am inclined to think that the development of style in any art is a sign of decline. The peculiar form that a poem, a painting, or a building takes is the one most suitable to its nature, and therefore the one that suggests itself as soon as it is allowed to develop freely.”
Kenneth Clark

Art… must do something more than give pleasure it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit. — Art… must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit.

All the greatest ages of art have been ages of realism.

Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.

A masterpiece of art contains something that goes beyond craftsmanship – a quality that emerges, in spite of obstacles, from the artist's deepest feelings and experience. — A masterpiece of art contains something that goes beyond craftsmanship – a quality that emerges, in spite of obstacles, from the artist’s deepest feelings and experience.

“I can only say that I try to construct a picture in which shapes, spaces, colors, form a set of unique relationships, independent of any subject matter. At the same time, I want them to be significant and to have emotional content.”
Kenneth Clark

Few people can look at a painting longer than it takes to peel an orange and eat it.

The eye instinctively looks for analogies and amplifies them, so that a face imagined in the pattern of a wallpaper may become more vivid than a photograph. — The eye instinctively looks for analogies and amplifies them, so that a face imagined in the pattern of a wallpaper may become more vivid than a **photograph**.

13 Deep Kenneth Clark Quotes that will Make You Think

“I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.”
Kenneth Clark

A lot of people you think you know you don't know until you find out you don't know then it may be too late to know. — A lot of people you think you know you don’t know until you find out you don’t know then it may be too late to know.

The Cathedrals were built to the glory of God; New York was built to the glory of Mammon.

“It would be unfair to say that I prefer the back of a book to its contents, but it is true that the sight of a lot of books gives me the hope that I may some day read them, which sometimes develops into the belief that I have read them.”
Kenneth Clark

Lives devoted to beauty seldom end well. — Lives devoted to **beauty** seldom end well.

The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilizing the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people.

“Civilization is an active deposit which is formed by the combustion of the present with the past. Neither in countries without a Present nor in those without a Past is it to be found.”
Kenneth Clark

Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one's insistence that he possesses it. — Pride, like **humility**, is destroyed by one’s insistence that he possesses it.

We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.

All great civilizations, in their early stages, are based on success in war. — All great civilizations, in their early stages, are based on **success** in war.

“The dark ghettos are social, political, educational and-above all-economic colonies. Their inhabitants are subject peoples, victims of the greed, cruelty, insensitivity, guilt, and fear of their masters.”
Kenneth Clark

In time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of action is handed over to stupid and obstinate men. — In time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of **action** is handed over to stupid and obstinate men.

One musn't overrate the culture of what used to be called 'top people' before the wars. They had charming manners, but they were as ignorant as swans. — One musn’t overrate the **culture** of what used to be called ‘top people’ before the wars. They had **charming** manners, but they were as ignorant as swans.

2 Kenneth Clark Quotes About Nude

“No nude, however abstract, should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling… The desire to grasp and be united with another human is so fundamental a part of our nature that our judgement of what is known as ‘pure form’ is inevitably influenced by it, and one of the difficulties of the nude as a subject for art is that these instincts cannot be hidden.”
Kenneth Clark

“The nude gains its enduring value from the fact that it reconciles several contrary states. It takes the most sensual and immediately interesting object, the human body, and puts it out of reach of time and desire; it takes the most purely rational concept of which mankind is capable, mathematical order, and makes it a delight to the senses; and it takes the vague fears of the unknown and sweetens them by showing that the gods are like men and may be worshiped for their life-giving beauty rather than their death-dealing powers.”
Kenneth Clark