"To be intelligent without ideas is the privilege of the artist."

Nicolás Gómez Dávila Philosophy See all quotes by Nicolás Gómez Dávila →

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“An individual declares himself a member of some group or other with the goal of demanding in its name what he is ashamed to claim in his own name.”

“No public cause deserves the unlimited allegiance of an intelligent man.”

“Genuine allegiance to an idea surpasses every psychological or social motivation.”

“The enemies of myth are not the friends of reality but of triviality.”

“The individual shrinks in proportion as the state grows.”

“To have a dialog with those who do not share our basic premises is nothing more than a stupid way to kill time.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Critics of visual arts and of music describe in words — that is to say, a system of signs other than those made by brushes on canvas or chisels into stone or notes of music — those characteristics of …"

— Stephen Spender

Literature1909–1995

#art

"Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation – from the Griffith Institute website, Howard Carter's records of the excavations, financed by Lord Carnarvon, in the Valley of the Kings."

— Howard Carter

1874–1939

#art

"If we really came to a position in which we could no longer produce the grain which we must necessarily consume, then in what state would we be if in wartime we had no Russian grain imports and perhap…"

— Otto von Bismarck

Politics

#art

"Art itself cannot be taught, but craftsmanship can. Architects, painters, sculptors are all craftsmen in the original sense of the word. Thus it is a fundamental requirement of all artistic creativity…"

— Walter Gropius

Education1883–1969

#art