This week at NPR, we’ve been taking a deep dive into colors – how animals make them, how people see them and how they organize our lives. And in the midst of the color frenzy, I came upon a delightful collection of color quotes from Goethe’s Theory of Colours. Give ‘em a read, and if they leave you wanting more, check out this weird little color lesson we put together.
On yellow …
“In its highest purity it always carries with it the nature of brightness, and has a serene, gay, softly exciting character.”
On blue …
“This colour has a peculiar and almost indescribable effect on the eye. As a hue it is powerful — but it is on the negative side, and in its highest purity is, as it were, a stimulating negation. Its appearance, then, is a kind of contradiction between excitement and repose.”
On red …
“The effect of this colour is as peculiar as its nature. It conveys an impression of gravity and dignity, and at the same time of grace and attractiveness.”
On green …
“The eye experiences a distinctly grateful impression from this colour. If the two elementary colours are mixed in perfect equality so that neither predominates, the eye and the mind repose on the result of this junction as upon a simple colour. The beholder has neither the wish nor the power to imagine a state beyond it.”
-Nicole
Quotes via Brain Pickings
Image via Wikipedia
