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Like art, science is born of itself, not of nature. There is no neutral naturalism. The artist, no less than the writer, needs a vocabulary before he can embark on a 'copy' of reality.

— Ernst Gombrich E. H. Gombrich (1962)

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More quotes by Ernst Gombrich

If you want to do anything new you must first make sure you know what people have tried before.

A Little History of the World (2005)

Even though I came from a Jewish home myself, it never entered my head that such horrors might be repeated in my own lifetime.

A Little History of the World (2005)

Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there.

Art and Illusion (1960)

There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.

Images apparently occupy a curious position somewhere between the statements of language, which are intended to convey a meaning, and the things of nature, to which we only can give a meaning.

Symbolic Images (1972)

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Henri Poincaré Science and Hypothesis (1901)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ernst Gombrich (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.