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John Berger Quotes

1926–2017 England

John Peter Berger (5 November, 1926 - 2 January, 2017) was an art critic, novelist, painter and author. The best-known among his many works include the novel G., winner of the 1972 Booker Prize, and Ways of Seeing a BBC television series of art criticism and accompanying book.

England
Essayists
Novelists
Painters
Poets

Random John Berger quote

4 quotes

The uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided.

Ways of Seeing (1972)

A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and not by a but.

Animals are born, are sentient and are mortal. In these things they resemble man. In their superficial anatomy — less in their deep anatomy — in their habits, in their time, in their physical capacities, they differ from man. They are both like and unlike.

About Looking (1980)

Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion. The industrial society which has moved towards democracy and then stopped half way is the ideal society for generating such an emotion. The pursuit of individual happiness has been acknowledged as a universal right. Yet the existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless.

Ways of Seeing (1972)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Berger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.