Herbert Edward Read

1893-1968, British Writer, Critic

Art
Art is a celebration of life.

Art is an indecent exposure of the consciousness.

Art is not and never has been subordinate to moral values. Moral values are social values; aesthetic values are human values. Morality seeks to restrain the feelings; art seeks to define them by externalizing them, by giving them significant form. Morality has only one aim – the ideal good; art has quite another aim – the objective truth … art never changes.

Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing , © 2004