55 Quotes by Bernard Berenson

Government is the art of the momentary feasible, of the least bad attainable, and not of the rationally most desirable.

Not what man knows but what man feels, concerns art. All else is science.

All of the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly and together create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society, and its masterpiece, free man

International affairs will be placed on a better footing when it is understood that there is no way of punishing a people for the crimes of its rulers.

I wonder whether art has a higher function than to make me feel, appreciate, and enjoy natural objects for their art value?

Enemies could become the best companions. Companionship is based on a common interest, and the greater the interest the closer the companionship. What makes enemies of people, if not the eagerness, the passion for the same thing?

It was a morning in early summer. A silver haze shimmered and trembled over the lime trees. The air was laden with their fragrance. The temperature was like a caress. I remember - I need not recall - that I climbed up a tree stump and felt suddenly immersed in Itness. I did not call it by that name. I had no need for words. It and I were one.

One can repent even of having repented.

I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, begging passerby to drop their unused minutes into it.