Art is not a thing; it is a way.
Genuine
Yes. In Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great (1894), Volume 10, To the Homes of Great Teachers (Memorial Edition, 1916), ‘Thomas Arnold’, opening paragraph.
Found word for word by program in the full text.
- Work
- Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great (Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great), 1894
- Where
- Volume 10, To the Homes of Great Teachers (Memorial Edition, 1916), ‘Thomas Arnold’, opening paragraph
- Found at
- Paragraph 852 of the text
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
—Thomas Arnold
[…] His life was short, as men count time, but he lived long enough to make for himself a name and a fame that are both lasting and luminous. Though he was neither a great writer nor a great preacher, yet there were times when he thought he was both. He was only a schoolteacher. However, he was an artist in schoolteaching, and art is not a thing—it is a way. It is the beautiful way—the effective way.
Schoolteachers have no means of proving their prowess by conspicuous waste, and no time to convince the world of their excellence through conspicuous leisure; consequently, for histrionic purposes, a schoolteacher’s cosmos is a plain, slaty gray. […]
For many years Thomas Arnold has been known as the father of his son. Several great men have been thus overshadowed. […]
The scene
Hubbard opens his portrait of Thomas Arnold by saying that he was neither a great writer nor a great preacher but a schoolteacher. Arnold’s artistry, in Hubbard’s account, consists in how he teaches. The following paragraph contrasts teachers’ daily work with the conspicuous wealth and leisure that would advertise their importance.
What it means
Art is not just a finished object: it is a beautiful and effective way of doing something, here the work of teaching.
Often misread
Detached from its context, this can sound like a claim restricted to painting or sculpture. Hubbard is explicitly calling schoolteaching an art.
Topics
Related quotes
- The true teacher is a learner.
- Earn with your mind, not your time. Naval Ravikant
- We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. (misattributed) Aristotle
- Everything has already been said; but as no one listens, one must always begin again. André Gide
- Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Martin Luther King Jr.
Sources
Cite it
Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great (1894), Volume 10, To the Homes of Great Teachers (Memorial Edition, 1916), ‘Thomas Arnold’, opening paragraph. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/art-is-not-a-thing-it-is-a-way/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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