Art for art's sake has never flourished in England. We are often called inartistic because our art is unconscious. Our drama and poetry, like our laws and our constitution, have evolved by accident while we thought we were doing something else, and so it will be with music. The composer must not shut himself up and think about art, he must live with his fellows and make his art an expression of the whole life of the community – if we seek for art we shall not find it.


"Who Wants the English Composer?" (1912); cited from Ursula Vaughan Williams RVW (1964) pp. 101-2.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Quotes

Art for art's sake has never flourished in England. We are often called inartistic because our art is unconscious. Our drama and poetry, like our...

Art for art's sake has never flourished in England. We are often called inartistic because our art is unconscious. Our drama and poetry, like our...

Art for art's sake has never flourished in England. We are often called inartistic because our art is unconscious. Our drama and poetry, like our...

Art for art's sake has never flourished in England. We are often called inartistic because our art is unconscious. Our drama and poetry, like our...