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Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce

Art and artists

Related Quotes

DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.
— Ambrose Bierce
ArtCountryDiplomacy
LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion --thus:_Major Premise_: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man._Minor Premise_: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds; therefore --_Conclusion_: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second. This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.
— Ambrose Bierce
ArtLogicThinking
REALISM, n. The art of depicting nature as it is seem by toads. The charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by a measuring-worm.
— Ambrose Bierce
ArtCharmNature
MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.
— Ambrose Bierce
ArtMagicPurpose
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
— Andre Gide
Art and artists