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Obscurity Art Quotes

25 art quotes about Obscurity | Submit more Obscurity art quotes

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. (Napoleon Bonaparte)

There's nothing more precious than anonymity... and once lost, can never be regained. (Virginia Braden)

If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results. (Emily Bronte)

-b.1887 d.1914...
Good painting as always is a door opened to man's spirit... it will not repel because of its obscurity, but may because of its directness. (James Brooks)

I give the fight up: let there be an end, a privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God. (Robert Browning)

Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man. (Thomas Carlyle)

To be sure an artist wishes to raise his standard intellectually as much as possible, but the man must remain in obscurity. Pleasure must be found in the studying. (Paul Cezanne)

Those things which I am saying now may be obscure, yet they will be made clearer in their proper place. (Nicolaus Copernicus)

Any effort... to make the obscure obvious is likely to be unappealing, for the penalty of failure is confusion while the reward of success is banality. (Nelson Goodman)

-b.1716 d.1771...
Full many a gem of purest ray serene / The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: / Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air. (Thomas Gray)

If, after study, the work of an artist remains obscure, the fault may not be yours. (Irwin Greenberg)

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure. (Horace)

The way to be nothing is to do nothing. (Nathaniel Howe)

I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery. (Aldous Huxley)

The spirit is often concealed within matter to such an extent that few people are generally capable of perceiving it. (Wassily Kandinsky)

-The Inner Life...
If you desire to know or learn anything to your advantage, then take delight in being unknown and unregarded. A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons. (Thomas a Kempis)

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently. (Agnes de Mille)

Art will never come except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature. (Jean-Francois Millet)

The obscure we see eventually. The completely apparent takes a little longer. (Edward R. Morrow)

There is value in long years of obscurity, if one doesn't go insane or suicidal, in that, simply because nobody is looking, the habit of fooling around and trying things out gets ingrained. (Jules Olitski)

It's very interesting being legendary when you can't even make a living and the public's never heard of you. (Florine Stettheimer)

Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters? (Henry David Thoreau)

Obscurity is the realm of error. (Marquis de Vauvenargues)

Be obscure clearly. Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand. (E. B. White)

God and other artists are always a little obscure. (Oscar Wilde)


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Editor: Robert Genn

Assistant Editor: Shawn Jackson

Associate Editors:

Scott Altman, Bonnie Austin, Karen Austin, Michele Becker, Joe Blodgett, Norman Brown, Alyce Bryson, Leanne Cadden, Penny Duane, Max Elliot, Derek Franklin, Sara Genn, Mardy Grothe, Harry Hartley, Sue Holland, Sue Legault, Tammy McManus, Eric Mewhinney, Bruce Miller, Laura Parrish, Andrea Pratt, Dan Roberts, Shirley Rochon, Gilbert Roy, John Sherlock, Victor Wong,
And many others who have so far contributed one quote or a few. Please join us and add more at

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Last modified: May 24, 2013