Sweeping, confident articles on the future seem to me, intellectually, the most disreputable of all forms of public utterance.
Kenneth ClarkI just don't think the moon is going to be an adequate substitute for the fact that we haven't addressed ourselves to clearing up the slums.
Kenneth ClarkIn time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of action is handed over to stupid and obstinate men.
Kenneth ClarkI believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history.
Kenneth ClarkThe Cathedrals were built to the glory of God; New York was built to the glory of Mammon.
Kenneth ClarkGreat works of art can be produced in barbarous societies - in fact the very narrowness of primitive society gives their ornamental art a peculiar concentration and vitality. At some time in the ninth century one could have looked down the Seine and seen the prow of a Viking ship coming up the river. Looked at today in the British Museum, it is a powerful work of art; but to the mother of a family trying to settle down in her little hut, it would have seemed less agreeable - as menacing to her civilisation as the periscope of a nuclear submarine.
Kenneth Clark