King of Quotable Quotes
John Bartlett, American editor and quote compiler, was born on this day in 1820.Bartlett worked in a university book store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while he compiled what became Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, published in 1855. The invaluable book ran through nine editions before Bartlett's death in 1905 and has since been revised and expanded several times.
In honor of Bartlett and his notable quotations, today's featured art work comes from the Container Corporation of America's advertising series "Great Ideas."
The campaign concept was adapted from the principles of the University of Chicago humanities curriculum, a course of general education based on the study of classic works of philosophy and literature. Artists were commissioned to create artworks based on quotations from classic texts.
This painting by artist Jacob Lawrence was inspired by this quote from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, VIII:59
Pictured: Jacob Lawrence, 1917–2000, "Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, VIII:59. From the series "Great Ideas of Western Man", 1958, oil on fiberboard, 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America.