The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.

Talent does whatever it wants to do. Genius does only what it can.

Let a man of genius make use [of photography] as it should be used, and he will raise himself to a height that we do not know.

All painting worth its name, unless one is talking about black and white, must include the idea of color as one of its necessary supports, in the same way that it includes chiaroscuro, proportion, and perspective.

I am carrying out my plan, so long formulated, of keeping a journal. What I most keenly wish is not to forget that I am writing for myself alone. Thus I shall always tell the truth, I hope, and thus I shall improve myself. These pages will reproach me for my changes of mind.

Nature creates unity even in the parts of a whole.

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.