Feats Quotes - Page 10

• To explain away the mystery of a great painting - if such a feat were possible - would do irreparable harm... If there is no mystery, then there is no poetry, the quality I value above all else in art.

  Georges Braque

  Art, Irreparable Harm, Quality

  Interview with John Richardson, December 1, 1957.

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• A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness.

  Ben Shahn

  Art, Numbers, Quality

  Ben Shahn (1957). “The Shape of Content”, p.101, Harvard University Press

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• ...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very encouraging, because in all examples that come to mind the simple and elegant systems tend to be easier and faster to design and get right, more efficient in execution, and much more reliable than the more contrived contraptions that have to be debugged into some degree of acceptability....Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Hard Work, Opportunity, Simple

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• It was the single greatest feat I ever saw.

  Mickey Mantle

  Baseball, Saws

  Mickey Mantle (1986). “The Mick”, Jove Publications

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