What art offers is space—a certain breathing room for the spirit.

space art spirit

About John Updike

Portrait of John Updike

John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and Colson Whitehead), Updike published more...

More quotations from John Updike

Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.

That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.

Adversity in immunological doses has its uses; more than that crushes.

The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun's just started.

world culture ending continuation

You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.

learning world reverence

More quotations tagged with “spirit”

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

—Edward Abbey

spirit necessity luxury wilderness

The sun rose this morning at 6:32 A.M. This gratifying event was first reported by Mrs. Dorothy Stetson of Freeport, Long Island, who promptly telephoned the mayor. The Society for Affirming the End of the World at once went into a special session and postponed the arrival of that event for twenty-four hours. All honor to Mrs. Stetson for her public spirit.

—Thornton Wilder

world spirit sunrise

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

hate spirit nonviolence violence

All life is a manifestation of the spirit, the manifestation of love.

—Morihei Ueshiba

love life spirit

Doctors don't know everything really. They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.

—William Saroyan

understanding knowledge spirit doctors

History

3 Aug 2015 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.