Irving Stone > Quotes

“There are no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books.”
― Irving Stone

“One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.”
― Irving Stone

“Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“He had always loved God. In his darkest hours he cried out, "God did not create us to abandon us.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“First, we think all truth is beautiful, no matter how hideous its face may seem. We accept all of nature, without any repudiation. We believe there is more beauty in a harsh truth than in a pretty lie, more poetry in earthiness than in all the salons of Paris. We think pain is good because it is the most profound of all human feelings. We think sex is beautiful even when portrayed by a harlot and a pimp. We put character above ugliness, pain above prettiness and hard, crude reality above all the wealth in France. We accept life in its entirety without making moral judgments. We think the prostitute is as good as the countess, the concierge as good as the general, the peasant as good as the cabinet minister, for they all fit into the pattern of nature and are woven into the design of life!”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death.”
― Irving Stone

“We...believe that art is religious, because it is one of man's highest aspirations. There is no such thing as pagan art, only good and bad art.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

“I cannot draw a human figure if I don't know the order of his bones, muscles or tendons. Same is that I cannot draw a human face if I don't know what's going on his mind and heart. In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“Listen, my friend, all forms that exist in God's universe can be found in the human figure. A man's body and face can tell everything he represents. So how could I ever exhaust my interest in it?”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“...and rout the magical mystical moonlight with fierce proof of its own greater power to light, to heat, to make everything known.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“The paintings that laughed at him merrily from the walls were like nothing he had ever seen or dreamed of. Gone were the flat, thin surfaces. Gone was the sentimental sobriety. Gone was the brown gravy in which Europe had been bathing its pictures for centuries. Here were pictures riotously mad with the sun. With light and air and throbbing vivacity. Paintings of ballet girls backstage, done in primitive reds, greens, and blues thrown next to each other irreverantly. He looked at the signature. Degas.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Loneliness is a kind of prison.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“On croit que j'imagine — ce n'est pas vrai — je me souviens.

[They say I imagine — it is not true — I remember.]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“The most perfect guide is nature. Continue without fail to draw something every day.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“Drawing is the poet's written line, set down to see if there be a story worth telling, a truth worth revealing.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“An artist without ideas is a mendicant; barren, he goes begging among the hours.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“There are neither good nor evil, only the existence and action.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Everyone has their own personality, its own character, and if he respects that, everything would finally fall over for good only.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“He had never believed that spirituality had to be anemic or aesthetic.
”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

“There's no love without pain.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“It's freezing up here. What did you use to keep warm?"
"Indignation," said Michelangelo. "Best fuel I know. Never burns out.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“From the biography of Freud, by Irving Stone, said by Freud's fiance after he teased her for being sweet, "Beware of truly sweet people. They have will of iron.”
― Irving Stone

“Sometimes men are generous and forgiving, sometimes angry and blind.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“The one who has not seen Paris in the morning does not know how beautiful it is.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“An impressionist is the one who does not paint like everyone, does not obey the rules and attitude.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“I paint only what I love.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Life's not so bad after all. There are not only poison but also antidotes.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“An artist does not have to think about what he is doing.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Art should be linked to abstract things - color, line, tone. It is not an instrument to improve social conditions and chase ugliness. Painting is like music and it has to separate from everyday reality.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Money makes the man a beast.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“A person may paint or talk about painting but he cannot do both at the same time.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Naći će se drugi papa, ali nikad više neće biti Botičelija.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“Savoir souffrir sans se plaindre, ça c‘est la seule chose pratique, c‘est la grande science, la leçon à apprendre, la solution du problème de la vie.

[Knowing how to suffer without complaining is the only practical thing, it's the great science, the lesson to learn, the solution to the problem of life.]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Diligence does not work if there is a lack of innate talent.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Perhaps you could not find such godless, such ruthless and such materialist people as clergy.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“How can a young person learn whether he chose the correct way? He thinks he has a special idea, and then he discovers that he is completely inappropriate for it.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“I will be an artist. I am sure I will.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Nature always resists the artist at the beginning.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“An empty stomach is better than full and grief is better than happiness.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“The artist has to take risks.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“A man who has not suffered has nothing to tell with his paintings.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Fortune is beastly — it is only suitable for cows and businessmen.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life