For the mass of men the idea of artistic creation can only be expressed by an idea unpopular in present discussions—the idea of property.
 G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910). copy citation

Context

“This fruitful strife with limitations, when it concerns some airy entertainment of an educated class, goes by the name of Art. But the mass of men have neither time nor aptitude for the invention of invisible or abstract beauty. For the mass of men the idea of artistic creation can only be expressed by an idea unpopular in present discussions—the idea of property. The average man cannot cut clay into the shape of a man; but he can cut earth into the shape of a garden; and though he arranges it with red geraniums and blue potatoes in alternate straight lines, he is still an artist;” source