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An artist’s life is all very fine and moving. But only in retrospect. In books.

— Bram van Velde Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1965)

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More quotes by Bram van Velde

Yes, perhaps there is some enjoyment in it [his paintings] too, somewhere.

Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1965)

Painting is an eye, a blinded eye that continues to see, and sees what blinds it.. ..this tiny little thing, which is nothing, which dominates life.

Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1965)

Because it's an adventure out of all proportion. You have to devote all your strength to it and it's never enough.

Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970)

The world of architecture – and of works conceived for architecture – tends towards beauty. True beauty tends towards ugliness and panic.

Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970)

Mondrian? His mind was too subtle. He worked in the light. I work in the darkness.. .Mondrian is the Buddha of painting. I saw him once. You wondered how a man could radiate such charisma.

Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1965)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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