Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.

In art, immorality cannot exist. Art is always sacred.

What is drawing? Not once in describing the shape of the mass did I shift my eyes from the model. Why? Because I wanted to be sure that nothing evaded my grasp of it... My objective is to test to what extent my hands already feel what my eyes see.

What is commonly called ugliness in nature can in art become full of beauty.

There are unknown forces in nature; when we give ourselves wholly to her, without reserve, she lends them to us; she shows us these forms, which our watching eyes do not see, which our intelligence does not understand or suspect.

There is nothing ugly in art except that which is without character, that is to say, that which offers no outer or inner truth.

The delicate droop of the petals standing out in relief, is like the eyelid of a child.