Beauty lies in nature and reveals, once the artist has perceived it, its own expressive power.

The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota.

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.'

The principle of realism means denial of the ideal.

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

The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.