I have never seen either angels or goddesses, so I am not interested in painting them.

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 hope to live all my life for my art, without abandoning my principles one iota, without . . . having painted as much as you can cover with your hand, to please somebody or in order to sell the picture more easily.

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

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

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.