It was at home I learned the little I know. Schools always appeared to me like a prison, and never could I make up my mind to stay there, not even for four hours a day, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was joy to run about the cliffs in the free air, or to paddle in the water.

The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.

Zaandam has enough to paint for a lifetime.

It is only too easy to catch people's attention by doing something worse than anyone else has dared to do it before.

The real subject of every painting is light.

It is better to have done something than to have been someone.

Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It is fog that gives it its magnificent amplitude...its regular and massive blocks become grandiose in that mysterious mantle.