# Quote — G. Chesterton, Heretics

> Any man with a vital knowledge of the human psychology ought to have the most profound suspicion of anybody who claims to be an artist, and talks a great deal about art. Art is a right and human thing, like walking or saying one's prayers; but the moment it begins to be talked about very solemnly, a man may be fairly certain that the thing has come into a congestion and a kind of difficulty. The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is a disease which arises from men not having sufficient power of expression to utter and get rid of the element of art in their being. It is healthful to every sane man to utter the art within him; it is essential to every sane man to get rid of the art within him at all costs. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily, or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament. Thus, very great artists are able to be ordinary men—men like Shakespeare or Browning. There are many real tragedies of the artistic temperament, tragedies of vanity or violence or fear. But the great tragedy of the artistic temperament is that it cannot produce any art.

- Author: [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md)
- Book: [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)#Chapter_XVII:_%22On_the_Wit_of_Whistler%22) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/any-man-with

## More from this book

> And it is not very difficult to see where we have really to look for it. The people (as I tactfully pointed out to them) who really take the name of the Lord in vain are the clergymen themselves. The thing which is fundamentally and really frivolous is not a careless joke. The thing which is fundamentally and really frivolous is a careless solemnity. If Mr. McCabe really wishes to know what sort of guarantee of reality and solidity is afforded by the mere act of what is called talking seriously, let him spend a happy Sunday in going the round of the pulpits. Or, better still, let him drop in at the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Even Mr. McCabe would admit that these men are solemn—more solemn than I am. And even Mr. McCabe, I think, would admit that these men are frivolous—more frivolous than I am. Why should Mr. McCabe be so eloquent about the danger arising from fantastic and paradoxical writers? Why should he be so ardent in desiring grave and verbose writers? There are not so very many fantastic and paradoxical writers. But there are a gigantic number of grave and verbose writers; and it is by the efforts of the grave and verbose writers that everything that Mr. McCabe detests (and everything that I detest, for that matter) is kept in existence and energy. How can it have come about that a man as intelligent as Mr. McCabe can think that paradox and jesting stop the way? It is solemnity that is stopping the way in every department of modern effort.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/and-it-is-not.md)

Topics: [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md)

> Whistler could produce art; and in so far he was a great man. But he could not forget art; and in so far he was only a man with the artistic temperament. There can be no stronger manifestation of the man who is a really great artist than the fact that he can dismiss the subject of art; that he can, upon due occasion, wish art at the bottom of the sea.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/whistler-could-produce.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md)

> The men who have really been the bold artists, the realistic artists, the uncompromising artists, are the men who have turned out, after all, to be writing "with a purpose."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/the-men-who.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md)