"In places like universities, where everyone talks too rationally, it is necessary for a kind of enchanter to appear." Quoted in Caroline Tisdall, Joseph Beuys (New York, 1979) pg 23

"In every human there exists a potential creative faculty. This does not mean that each person is a painter or a sculptor, but that there is latent creativity in every domain of human effort."  Quote from Ferrier, Jean-Louis, Director and Yann le Pichon, Walter D. Glanze Art of Our Century, The Chronicle of Western Art, 1900 to the Present pg 813

"Only on condition of a radical widening of definitions will it be possible for art and activities related to art [to] provide evidence that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build ‘A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART’… EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST who – from his state of freedom – the position of freedom that he experiences at first-hand – learns to determine the other positions of the TOTAL ART WORK OF THE FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER." Quoted in Caroline Tisdall, Art Into Society, Society Into Art: Seven German Artists

"To be a teacher is my greatest work of art. The rest is the waste product, a demonstration. If you want to express yourself you must present something tangible. But after a while this has only the function of a historic document. Objects aren’t very important any more. I want to get to the origin of matter, to the thought behind it". Quoted in an interview with Joseph Beuys, 'Willoughby Sharp, published in ‘Artforum’ November 1969.

"Provocateur – that’s it exactly.  To provoke means to evoke something. By making a sculpture with fat or a piece of clay I evoke something. I ignite a thought within me – a totally original, totally new thought that has never yet existed in history, even if I deal with a historical fact or with Leonardo or Rembrandt. I myself determine history – it is not history that determines me.. ..every man is a potential provocateur." Quoted in Carin Kuoni Energy Plan for the Western man - Joseph Beuys in America pg 86

"It’s conceivable to me that science, the natural sciences, might have taken a completely different direction. These drawings we’re talking about would have been a part of the natural sciences if it had, rather than being classed as art, as they are now". Quoted in Maria Muller et al., Joseph Beuys: Parallel Processes, Düsseldorf 2010. page 6

 "I think the tree is an element of regeneration which in itself is a concept of time. The oak is especially so because it is a slowly growing tree with a kind of really solid heartwood. It has always been a form of sculpture, a symbol for this planet" Cited in Claudia Mesch  Art and Politics: A Small History of Art for Social Change Since 1945. pg. 160

To be continued..