You must aim high, not in what you are going to do at some future date, but in what you are going to make yourself do to-day. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.
Edgar DegasDo portraits of people in familiar and typical attitudes, above all give to their face the same choice of expression that one gives to their body.
Edgar DegasA picture is first of all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy.
Edgar DegasI put it [picture "A still life of a pear" by Edouard Manet] there [on the wall, next to the picture "Jupiter and Thetis" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres], for a pear like that would overthrow any god.
Edgar Degas