I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am.
Caspar David FriedrichThe eye and fantasy feel more attracted by nebulous distance than by that which is close and distinct in front of us.
Caspar David FriedrichI am not so weak as to submit to the demands of the age when they go against my convictions. I spin a cocoon around myself; let others do the same. I shall leave it to time to show what will come of it: a brilliant butterfly or maggot.
Caspar David FriedrichThe pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art.
Caspar David FriedrichWhat the newer landscape artists see in a circle of a hundred degrees in Nature they press together unmercifully into an angle of vision of only forty-five degrees. And furthermore, what is in Nature separated by large spaces, is compressed into a cramped space and overfills and oversatiates the eye, creating an unfavorable and disquieting effect on the viewer.
Caspar David Friedrich