Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future. – Robert Smithson
When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us. – Robert Smithson
Painting, sculpture and architecture are finished, but the art habit continues. – Robert Smithson
Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is. – Robert Smithson
Whatever its origin, a belief in spirits seems to have been common to all the nations of the ancient world who have left us any record of themselves. Ghosts began to walk early, and are walking still, in spite of the shrill cock-crow of wir haben ja aufgeklärt. – James Russell Lowell, “Witchcraft”