If man were permitted to make all ballads he would not care who made
the laws of a nation. For, indeed, the lawgiver would be but wax
in the artists’ hands.
Equally important as science for the progress of mankind,
art shall be considered a vital organ.

No amount of instruction can cause a fiddler to capture the infinitely minute flight of his note, or a sketcher draw of all possible lines only the right arrangement. All this is found by feeling.
Therefore schools may teach what is necessary in order to produce
something resembling art, but not art itself.

The puritans disliked art because they realized that the beauty
of cathedrals and of church music was instrumental in preserving
the influence of an established religion they disapproved of.
It took them a long while to realize that in oratory, as well as in prose, in verse, and in hymns, art could afford them valuable aid.

- Elizabeth Katharine James