It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all. We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses. Art only has the capacity, through shock and catharsis, to make the human soul receptive to good. It’s ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good…Art can only give food – a jolt – the occasion – for psychical experience.

Η ζωή περικλείει και το θάνατο. Το ομοίωμα της ζωής τον αποκλείει ή τον αντιμετωπίζει ως τη μόνη δυνατότητα για την επικύρωσή της.
Η ίδια η καλλιτεχνική εικόνα εκφράζει ελπίδα, πάθος, πίστη και διάφορα άλλα, μεταξύ των οποίων και το θάνατο του ανθρώπου.
Η δημιουργικότητα είναι η άρνηση του θανάτου, άρα είναι αισιόδοξη, ακόμα κι όταν η ζωή του καλλιτέχνη είναι τραγική. Γι' αυτό δεν πρέπει να χωρίζουμε τους καλλιτέχνες σε αισιόδοξους και απαισιόδοξους. Σε γενικές γραμμές υπάρχουν μόνο χαρισματικοί και μη χαρισματικοί καλλιτέχνες.

Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken a wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake. What purports to be art begins to looks like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalized action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in an artistic creation the personality does not assert itself, it serves another, higher, and communal idea. The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling.