"Civilizations tell their stories in three books: The book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art, and only the last is reliable as truth." 
- John Ruskin

"Every authentic work of art is a gift to the future." 
- Albert Camus

"Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
- Pablo Picasso

“I am always doing things I can't do. That is how I get to do them.”
- Pablo Picasso

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
– Pablo Picasso

“Life beats down and crushes the soul; art reminds you that you have one.”
- Stella Adler

“As technology becomes capable of producing soulless perfection, so we hunger for imperfection, for the rough beauty that bears the imprint of the fallible human hand.”
- Nazneen Haque Mimi

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, and his head, and his heart, is an artist”
- commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

“Art is not a thing; it is a way.”
– Elbert Hubbard

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
– Thomas Merton

“If you hear a voice within you say, "You cannot paint," then by all means paint - and that voice will be silenced.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
– William Morris

 “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
- Albert Einstein

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Music is one of the best ways to enjoy the present.  It's not much fun to look forward to hearing music or to remember what a song sounded like last week, but music right now absorbs you and places you in the moment.”
- Terri Guillemets

“A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” 
- Leopold Stokowski

“The artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.”
- John Updike

“The dignity of a nation will not be judged by her ability to make money, but by her ability to produce art.”
– Willi Schmidt

 “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
– Scott Adams

 “Art is science made clear.”
– Wilson Mizner

“Kids who are involved in the arts are:

• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
• 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
• 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance”

from AmericansForTheArts.org – “The Arts, Ask for More”

“Art is a communication – a two-way street.”
– Joseph Molinaro

“People from a planet without art would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”
– Iris Murdoch, adapted

“A bird without wings and a man without art are both condemned to wander in low places; they can never soar up to those unrivaled heights.”
– William Shakespeare