Since the Gothic, European sculpture has become overgrown with moss, weeds - all sorts of surface excrescences which completely concealed shape. It has been Brancusi's special mission to get rid of this overgrowth and to make us once more shape-conscious.

Henry Moore

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The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.

Henry Moore

important secret motivational

To be an artist is to believe in life.

Henry Moore

beautiful beauty life

I find in all the artists that I admire most a disturbing element, a distortion, giving evidence of a struggle . . . . In great art, this conflict is hidden, it is unresolved. All that is bursting with energy is disturbing - not perfect.

Henry Moore

struggle giving art

Art is the expression of imagination, not the reproduction of reality.

Henry Moore

expression reality art

I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'.

Henry Moore

new-year educational inspirational

Between beauty of expression and power of expression there is a difference of function. The first aims at pleasing the senses, the second has a spiritual vitality which for me is more moving and goes deeper than the senses.

Henry Moore

expression spiritual moving

If I set out to sculpt a standing man and it becomes a lying woman, I know I am making art.

Henry Moore

greatness lying art

All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don't really, you know.

Henry Moore

art moving thinking

The soul cannot thrive in the absence of art.

Henry Moore

soul spirit art

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.

Henry Moore

awareness each-day important

In my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form, animals, people, pebbles, shells, anything you like are all things that can help you to make a sculpture.

Henry Moore

sculpture animal people

The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.

Henry Moore

creativity creative change

The whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form. It always surprises me when artists try to escape from this.

Henry Moore

shapes artist trying

The observation of nature is part of an artist's life, it enlarges his form [and] knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration.

Henry Moore

nature inspiration life

The important thing is somehow to begin.

Henry Moore

important-things important action

I have always liked drawing, when you draw you see things more intensely.

Henry Moore

draws drawing

Now I really make the little idea from clay, and I hold it in my hand. I can turn it, look at it from underneath, see it from one view, hold it against the sky, imagine it any size I like, and really be in control almost like God creating something.

Henry Moore

views hands art

Painting and sculpture help other people to see what a wonderful world we live in.

Henry Moore

sculpture helping-others people

Sculpture is an art of the open air... I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know.

Henry Moore

air beautiful art

I find drawing a useful outlet for ideas for which there is not time enough to realize as sculpture... And I sometimes draw just for its own enjoyment.

Henry Moore

sculpture drawing ideas