Classical Liberal Arts

Famous quotes containing the words liberal arts, classical, liberal and/or arts:

    “Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two—a proof of the decline of that country.”
    —Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “Against classical philosophy: thinking about eternity or the immensity of the universe does not lessen my unhappiness.”
    —Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    “I am not sure but I should betake myself in extremities to the liberal divinities of Greece, rather than to my country’s God. Jehovah, though with us he has acquired new attributes, is more absolute and unapproachable, but hardly more divine, than Jove. He is not so much of a gentleman, not so gracious and catholic, he does not exert so intimate and genial an influence on nature, as many a god of the Greeks.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)