Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see.
The first man to fence in a piece of land, saying "this is mine" and who found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society.
It is not I that am drawing, it is this thing at the end of my hand.
If a king tries to start a war, a mother should go to him and forbid it.
Luxury... corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.
When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!"