Ananda Coomaraswamy Quotes

• The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Artist, Men, Special

  Transformation of Nature in Art (1934) ch. 2

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• Art is nothing tangible. We cannot call a painting 'art' as the words 'artifact' and 'artificial' imply. The thing made is a work of art made by art, but not itself art. The art remains in the artist and is the knowledge by which things are made.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Art, Tangible, Painting

  Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (2017). “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”, p.19, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Myth embodies the nearest approach to absolute truth that can be stated in words.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Myth, Absolute Truth, Approach

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, Rama P. Coomaraswamy (2004). “The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy”, p.273, World Wisdom, Inc

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• It is the natural instinct of a child to work from within outwards; "First I think, and then I draw my think." What wasted efforts we make to teach the child to stop thinking, and only to observe!

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Children, Work, Thinking

  Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1943). “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”, p.11, Courier Corporation

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• The man incapable of contemplation cannot be an artist, but only a skillful workman.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Artist, Men, He Man

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, Rama P. Coomaraswamy (2004). “The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy”, p.133, World Wisdom, Inc

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• Industry without art is brutality.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Art, Brutality, Art Is

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (2007). “Figures of Speech Or Figures of Thought?: The Traditional View of Art”, p.17, World Wisdom, Inc

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• Beauty is the attractive power of perfection.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Beauty, Perfection, Attractive

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• No creature can attain a higher grade of nature without ceasing to exist.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Grades, Higher, Creatures

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, Alvin Moore, Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (1988). “Selected letters of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Becoming is not a contradiction of being but the epiphany of being.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Change, Becoming, Epiphany

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• We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created an industry without art.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Art, Creativity, Independent

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1943). “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”, p.61, Courier Corporation

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• All that is best for us comes of itself into our hands-but if we strive to overtake it, it perpetually eludes us.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Elude Us, Hands, Awareness

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1924). “The Dance of ?iva: Essays on Indian Art and Culture”, p.109, Courier Corporation

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• The most awkward means are adequate to the communication of authentic experience, and the finest words no compensation for lack of it. It is for this reason that we are moved by the true Primitives and that the most accomplished art craftsmanship leaves us cold.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Art, Communication, Mean

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• From one point of view becoming is a humiliation, and from another a royal procession.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Views, Perception, Becoming

  22 Copy quote

• The vocation, whether it be that of the farmer or the architect, is a function; the exercise of this function as regards the man himself is the most indispensable means of spiritual development, and as regards his relation to society the measure of his worth.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Spiritual, Mean, Exercise

  Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (2017). “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”, p.105, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• It is only when the maker of things is a maker of things by vocation, and not merely holding down a job, that the price of things is approximate to their real value. . . .

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Jobs, Real, Makers

  Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (2017). “Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art”, p.98, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Man's activity consists in either a making or doing. Both of these aspects of the active life depend for their correction upon the contemplative life (that is, the Hero).

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Life, Hero, Men

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• What I have sought is to understand what has been said.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Understanding, Said, Has Beens

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (2011). “The Wisdom of Ananda Coomaraswamy: Reflections on Indian Art, Life, and Religion”, p.18, World Wisdom, Inc

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