Kenneth ClarkThinkers

Civilization is always a result of war — All great civilizations, in their early stages, are based on success in war.

Opera is, next to Gothic architecture, one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.

Photography is an invention that frightened only the bad artists of the nineteenth century; the good ones all welcomed it and used it. Degas liked it not only because it provided an accurate record, but because the snapshot showed him a means of escape from the classical rules of design. Through it he learnt to make a composition without the use of formal symmetry.

Television is a form of soliloquy.

Television is an avalanche of vulgarity.

War is crucial to civilization — All great civilizations, in their early stages, are based on success in war.