The man incapable of contemplation cannot be an artist, but only a skillful workman.

The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.

Myth embodies the nearest approach to absolute truth that can be stated in words.

From one point of view becoming is a humiliation, and from another a royal procession.

All that is best for us comes of itself into our hands-but if we strive to overtake it, it perpetually eludes us.

It is only when the maker of things is a maker of things by vocation, and not merely holding down a job, that the price of things is approximate to their real value. . . .

Man's activity consists in either a making or doing. Both of these aspects of the active life depend for their correction upon the contemplative life (that is, the Hero).

It is the natural instinct of a child to work from within outwards; "First I think, and then I draw my think." What wasted efforts we make to teach the child to stop thinking, and only to observe!

Becoming is not a contradiction of being but the epiphany of being.

We have come to think of art and work as incompatible, or at least independent categories and have for the first time in history created an industry without art.

Beauty is the attractive power of perfection.

Oh, quit it! You're the possessor of a beautiful wife, a beautiful gas-stove, and you were going to forget all this race-hysteria.

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

If there is a God, his plan is very similar to someone not having a plan.

It is thought and feeling which guides the universe, not deeds.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it's just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

I do like putting scenario and story first, and I actually like masking whatever I want to say in the guise of genre.

He who loves goodness harbors angels, reveres reverence, and lives with God.

There's a lot of anger on our side. We've been lied about, we have been lied to, we've been mischaracterized, Hillary calling people deplorables and this kind of thing.

I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I'm free.

When you look at any of my films you will immediately be able to tell this is a [Werner] Herzog film. Even if you didn't have any credits, in two minutes flat you would know.