Art as Therapy Quotes

“Curiosity takes ignorance seriously, and is confident enough to admit when it does not know. It is aware of not knowing, and it sets out to do something about it”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Growth occurs when we discover how to remain authentically ourselves in the presence of potentially threatening things. Maturity is the possession of coping skills: we can take in our stride things that previously would have knocked us off course. We are less fragile, less easily shocked and hence more capable of engaging with situations as they really are”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“The true aspiration of art should be to reduce the need for it. It is not that we should one day lose our devotion to the things that art addresses: beauty, depth of meaning, good relationships, the appreciation of nature, recognition of the shortness of life, empathy, compassion, and so on. Rather, having imbibed the ideals that art displays, we should fight to attain in reality the things art merely symbolises, however graciously and intently. The ultimate goal of the art lover should be to build a world where works of art have become a little less necessary”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“We incline towards feelings of isolation and persecution because we have an unrealistic sense of how much difficulty is normal. We panic too easily, as we misjudge the meaning of our troubles. We are lonely – not that we have no one to talk to, but because those around us can’t appreciate our travails with sufficient depth, honesty and patience. This is partly because the ways we show the pain of our choppy relationships, envy or unfulfilled ambitions can easily seem pejorative and insulting. We suffer and we feel that this suffering lacks dignity”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“When you feel sad, you are participating in a venerable experience, to which I, this monument, am dedicated. Your sense of loss and disappointment, of frustrated hopes and grief at your own inadequacy, elevate you to serious company. Do not ignore of throw away your grief”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Art builds up self-knowledge, and is an excellent way of communicating the resulting fruit to other people.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Our mortality does not call for panic, but for a sense of awe.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Growth occurs when we discover how to remain authentically ourselves in the presence of potentially threatening things.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Among the thin birch trees and simple flowers on the rough land of the Pentland Hills is set a tablet, like an ancient tomb stone, on the base of which has been carved the resonant Latin phrase et in arcadia ego. The words are the voice of the tomb: I, death, am here, in the midst of life.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“good things have banal ingredients.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“To define a mission for art, then, one of its tasks is to teach us to be good lovers: lovers of rivers and lovers of skies, lovers of motorways and lovers of stones (58). And – very importantly – somewhere along the way, lovers of people.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Art can do the opposite of glamourizing the unattainable; it can reawaken us to the genuine merit of life as we’re forced to lead it.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“It is when we find points of connection to the foreign that we are able to grow.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“An important first step in overcoming defensiveness around art is to become more open about the strangeness that we feel in certain contexts.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“هنر مشکلات ما را انکار نمی‌کند، از ما نمی‌خواهد شادباشیم، به ما می‌گوید که اندوه را در قرارداد زندگی نوشته‌اند.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“Life is going on, but there is no drama, no expectation of an outcome, no sense of getting anywhere. Rather than this being a condition of boredom or frustration, though, it feels exactly right. It is tranquil but not tired. It is immensely peaceful but not inert. In a strange way, the picture is filled with a sense of delight in existence expressed quietly. It is not the light in itself that is so attractive; rather, it is the condition of the soul it evinces. The picture captures a part of who one is – a part that isn’t particularly verbal. You could point to this image and say, ‘That’s what I’m like, sometimes; and I wish I were like that more often.’ It could be the beginning of an important friendship if somebody else understood this too.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“We appreciate beauty more when we are aware of life’s troubles.
— 8. Henri Fantin-Latour, Chrysanthemums, 1871”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“ما بیشتر از اینکه نگاه رمانتیک به وقایع داشته باشیم، اغلب از تاریکی زیاد در رنجیم. ما بیش‌ازحد نسبت به مشکلات و بی‌عدالتی جهان آگاهی داریم و به طرز ناتوان‌کننده در برابر آنها احساس ضعف و کوچکی می‌کنیم.”
― Alain de Botton and John Armstrong, Art as Therapy

“One could be forgiven for supposing that rationality (or, more softly, ‘reasonableness’) is irrelevant – and even possibly opposed – to being a good lover. This is perhaps because we tend to think of love as a feeling, rather than as an achievement of intelligence. A reasonable or rational person is not one who is only interested in logic, or someone who tries in a cold, robotic fashion to substitute calculation and analysis for kindness or yearning. We are reasonable when we are moved by accurate explanation. Thus a reasonable person is slow to anger; they do not jump to conclusions”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“We will live in more beautiful, wise and humane communities when we have learnt to reorient the system of ambition, when the most driven and energetic individuals have the chance to win honour through work that taps into mankind’s highest needs.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“But the museum is only a prelude to a life well lived.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“The values captured in art shouldn’t remain in the museum – they should go with us into the playroom.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“زندگی خیلی به‌ندرت آرزوهایمان را برآورده می‌کند.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“ما به‌طور ناخودآگاه نمی‌دانیم چرا از چیزها خوشمان یا بدمان می‌آید و نمی‌توانیم به‌درستی و دقت به خودمان یا دیگران توضیح دهیم که دقیقاً چه چیزی در معرض خطر است.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“رشد زمانی رخ می‌دهد که کشف می‌کنیم چه طور در حضور چیزهای بالقوه تهدیدآمیز، اصالت خودمان را حفظ کنیم.”
― Alain de Botton , Art as Therapy

“در تاریخ سانسور همیشه آنچه محکوم می‌شود چیزی است برخوردار از ارزش واقعی، عمیق، صمیمی و حقیقی، چون برای قدرت فاسد ناخوشایند و نامحبوب است.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“یکی از قسمت‌های شگفت‌آور تجربه‌ی هنر، قدرت گاه‌به‌گاهش در به گریه انداختن ماست، نه با تصویری ترسناک یا مخوف بلکه با اثری به زیبایی و لطافتی خاص.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“ما می‌خواهیم آن چه را واقعاً برایمان مهم است به یاد بسپاریم و مردمی که آنان را هنرمندان خوبی می‌دانیم، تا حدی کسانی هستند که به نظر می‌رسد به‌درستی تصمیم گرفته‌اند چه چیز را به یاد بسپارند و جاودانه کنند و چه چیز را پشت سر رها کنند.”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy

“برای فردی بی‌اعتقاد، جهنم صرفاً ترک مسیر رسیدن به خودی بهتر است.”
― Alain de Botton and John Armstrong, Art as Therapy

“We are about to understand, but have not yet understood. This moment is important because it generally does not lie up to its promise. We abandon the process of reflection. Not much of a decision about the personal meaning of love, justice or success is achieved, and we move on to something else. Looking at Twombly’s painting assists us in a crucial thought: ‘The part of me that wonders about important questions and then gets confused has not had enough recognition”
― Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy