Quotes to inspire and reflect

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it.

One day seven years ago I found myself saying to myself—I can’t live where I want to—I can’t go where I want to go—I can’t do what I want to—I can’t even say what I want to … I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

To create one’s own world in any of the arts takes courage.

One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one’s capacity.

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination; and third, their industry.

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost, though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

There are moments when a man’s imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level and surveys the long windings of destiny.

The idea or the faculty of imagination serves as both rudder and bridle to the senses, inasmuch as the thing imagined moves the sense.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

Harness the imagination, for she is the whole of happiness.

It is not enough to know your craft—you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.

Imagination abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the source of their wonders.

Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path.

They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my reality.

A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so, he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.

Arrange what pieces come your way.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.

It takes a very long time to become young.

Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds?

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth, which sweeps you along in his passion.

What I dream of is an art of equilibrium, purity, and tranquility, devoid of upsetting or troubling subject matter …

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

It’s a curse. Yes, it’s a flame. It owns you. It has possession over you. You are not the master of yourself. You are consumed by this thing.

Expression is not a matter of passion mirrored on the human face or revealed by a violent gesture. When I paint a picture, its every detail is expressive.

Every significant artist is a metaphysician, a propounder of beauty-truths and form-theories.

An artist is a creature driven by demons— he usually doesn’t know why they chose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why.

The artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like the bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

Artists are fiery; they do not weep!

All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.

An artist cannot talk about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman.

The true painter strives to paint what can only be seen through his world.

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe; he re-creates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

I paint in order not to cry.

An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

We all have the ability … we just don’t all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.