I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any regime except the regime of liberty.'

I am fifty years old and I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any regime except the regime of liberty.'

I have never seen an angel. Show me an angel, and I'll paint one.

I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients.

The principle of realism means denial of the ideal.

Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.

France is the only nation in which astoundingly small numbers of civilized patrons reside.