35 John Berger Quotes for You to Enjoy

John Berger

English Artist

Born: Nov 5, 1926

Died: Jan 2, 2017

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Related authors: Banksy Barbara Hepworth Benjamin Clementine David Hockney Edward Lear John Constable Tracey Emin

Without ethics, man has no future. This is to say, mankind without them cannot be itself. Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities. John Berger

Future Man Ethics Difficult Say No Future Determine Without Priorities Itself Cannot Them Mankind Choices Actions Suggest

Being a unique superpower undermines the military intelligence of strategy. To think strategically, one has to imagine oneself in the enemy's place. If one cannot do this, it is impossible to foresee, to take by surprise, to outflank. Misinterpreting an enemy can lead to defeat. This is how empires fall. John Berger

Intelligence Enemy Impossible Fall Military Strategy Defeat Think Oneself Superpower Take Lead Empires How Surprise Foresee Being Cannot Place Military Intelligence Unique Strategically Imagine

That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe. John Berger

The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. John Berger

Natural World Result Rest Poverty Before Rich Other Our Unlike Scarcity Priorities Imposed Any Century Set

Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress. John Berger

Naked Dress Never Reveals Condemned Itself Being Form Placed Display

Propaganda invariably serves the long-term interests of some elite. John Berger

Some Propaganda Invariably Long-Term Interests Serve Elite

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own. John Berger

The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying. John Berger

Past Like Around Gradually Dying Grows

Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural. John Berger

Best Natural World Compassion Thought Way Some Supernatural Being Order Place Which Natural Order Therefore Necessity Basis

Hope is not a form of guarantee; it's a form of energy, and very frequently that energy is strongest in circumstances that are very dark. John Berger

Hope Dark Energy Circumstances Strongest Frequently Very Form Guarantee

Globalisation means many things. At one level, it talks of trade, which since the 16th century has exchanged goods and now, increasingly, ideas and information across the globe. But globalisation is also a view of the world - it is an opinion about man and why men are on the world. John Berger

Man World Men Increasingly About Since Goods Ideas Also Globalisation Globe Talks Trade Opinion Information Which Century Across Means View Many Now Why Level Things

A line, an area of tone, is not really important because it records what you have seen, but because of what it will lead you on to see. Following up its logic in order to check its accuracy, you find confirmation or denial in the object itself or in your memory of it. John Berger

You Memory Denial Will Seen Important Find Logic See Object Following Records Area Lead Check Because Line Up Itself Accuracy Order Confirmation Really Your Tone

Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form. John Berger

Alone Sense Begins Autobiography Being Form Being Alone Orphan

A drawing is an autobiographical record of one's discovery of an event - either seen, remembered or imagined. A 'finished' work is an attempt to construct an event in itself. John Berger

Work Seen Finished Drawing Record Construct Finished Work Attempt Remembered Discovery Itself Autobiographical Either Event Imagined

In Degas's compositions with several dancers, their steps, postures and gestures often resemble the almost geometric, formal letters of an alphabet, whereas their bodies and heads are recalcitrant, sinuous and individual. John Berger

Dancers Several Individual Almost Steps Heads Alphabet Geometric Gestures Often Whereas Formal Bodies Resemble Letters

The human quality Degas most admired was endurance. John Berger

Quality Admired Most Human Endurance

Never chain your dogs together with sausages. One must accustom one's self to be bored. John Berger

Together Must Bored Self Never Dogs Accustomed Your Chain Sausages

You can plan events, but if they go according to your plan they are not events. John Berger

You Events Go According Plan Your

I wanted to write about looking at the world, so it's more about helping people, or persuading people, to see what is around us; both the marvellous and the terrible. John Berger

People World Looking See About More Both Marvellous Write Terrible Around Wanted Us Persuading Helping Helping People

When I was about seven, one or two people encouraged me, and art became an enormous and important refuge. By adolescence, I was absolutely passionate about it and felt those paintings and those painters, whether they lived a few hundred years ago or were still alive, were somehow my companions. John Berger

Art Me People Important Few Enormous Seven Hundred Hundred Years Those Alive One Or Two About Somehow Adolescence Absolutely Became Felt Still Passionate Were Years Years Ago Encouraged Refuge Whether Companions Painters Paintings Lived Two Two People

Painting is something that you need to do, if not every day, then certainly most days. It is almost like being a pianist: if you stop, you lose something. John Berger

Day You Every Day Lose Painting Every Something Pianist Almost Days Like Most Stop Being Then Certainly Need

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