70 Quotes by Rudolf Arnheim

A system is in equilibrium when the forces constituting it are arranged in such a way as to compensate each other, like the two weights pulling at the arms of a pair of scales.

Entropy theory, on the other hand, is not concerned with the probability of succession in a series of items but with the overall distribution of kinds of items in a given arrangement.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.

Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors.

In many instances, order is apprehended first of all by the senses.

Man's striving for order, of which art is but one manifestation, derives from a similar universal tendency throughout the organic world; it is also paralleled by, and perhaps derived from, the striving towards the state of simplest structure in physical systems.

As one gets older, it happens that in the morning one fails to remember the airplane trip to be taken in a few hours or the lecture scheduled for the afternoon.

Furthermore, order is a necessary condition for making a structure function. A physical mechanism, be it a team of laborers, the body of an animal, or a machine, can work only if it is in physical order.

The absurd consequences of neglecting structure but using the concept of order just the same are evident if one examines the present terminology of information theory.