The single most powerful tool for winning a negotiation is the ability to get up and walk away from the table without a deal
Paul GauguinA hint - don't paint too much direct from nature. Art is an abstraction! study nature then brood on it and treasure the creation which will result, which is the only way to ascend towards God - to create like our Divine Master.
Paul GauguinA great sentiment can be rendered immediately. Dream on it and look for the simplest form in which you can express it.
Paul GauguinWhen the physical organism breaks up, the soul survives. It then takes on another body.
Paul GauguinIt is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.
Paul GauguinThe history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
Paul GauguinArt requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?
Paul GauguinHow do you see those tree?... They are yellow. Well then put down yellow. And that shadow is rather blue. So render it with pure ultramarine. Those red leaves? Use vermillion.
Paul GauguinColor which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power.
Paul GauguinA critic in my house sees some paintings. Greatly perturbed, he asks for my drawings. My drawings? Never! They are my letters, my secrets.
Paul GauguinI am a great artist and I know it. It's because of what I am that I have endured so much suffering, so as to pursue my vocation, otherwise I would consider myself a rogue - which is what many people think I am, for that matter.
Paul GauguinBeautiful colors exist, though we do not realize it, and are glimpsed behind the veil that modesty has drawn over them.
Paul GauguinLife has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing but words, unless one takes them apart in order to build something with them; they do not win their true meaning until one knows how to apply them.
Paul GauguinPainting is the most beautiful of all arts. In it, all sensations are condensed, at its aspect everyone may create romance at the will of his imagination, and at a glance have his soul invaded by the most profound memories, no efforts of memory, everything summed up in one moment. Complete art which sums up all the others and completes them.
Paul GauguinIn Europe men and women have intercourse because they love each other. In the South Seas they love each other because they have had intercourse. Who is right?
Paul GauguinStressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.
Paul GauguinI have come to an unalterable decision - to go and live forever in Polynesia. Then I can end my days in peace and freedom, without thoughts of tomorrow and this eternal struggle against idiots.
Paul GauguinOh yes! He loved yellow, did good Vincent...When the two of us were together in Arles, both of us insane, and constantly at war over beautiful colors, I adored red; where could I find a perfect vermilion?
Paul GauguinIn art one is concerned with the condition of the spirit for three quarters of the time; one must therefore care for oneself if he wishes to make something great and lasting.
Paul GauguinNight is here. All is at rest. My eyes close in order to see without actually understanding the dream that flees before men infinite space; and I experience the languorous sensation produced by the mournful procession of my hopes.
Paul GauguinThe missionary is no longer a man, a conscience. He is a corpse, in the hands of a confraternity, without family, without love, without any of the sentiments that are dear to us. Emasculated, in a sense, by his vow of chastity, he offers us the distressing spectacle of a man deformed and impotent or engaged in a stupid and useless struggle with the sacred needs of the flesh, a struggle which, seven times out of ten, leads him to sodomy, the gallows, or prison.
Paul GauguinIn art, there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists. And in the end, doesn't the revolutionary's work become official, once the State takes it over?
Paul GauguinProficiency in art is a contract with your self and the empowerment of your self. Not all of us demand or even desire proficiency, but for those who do it's necessary to temper the influence of groups. And while some artists think history is bunk, the historical evidence is overwhelming: "In my isolation I grow stronger."
Paul GauguinPoor artist! You gave away part of your soul when you painted the picture which you are now trying to dispose of.
Paul GauguinGo on working, freely and furiously, you will make progress and sooner or later your worth will be recognised, if you have any.
Paul GauguinLife has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will.
Paul GauguinI am leaving in order to have peace and quiet. To be rid of the influence of civilization. I only want to do simple, very simple art and to be able to do that, I have to immerse myself in virgin nature, see no one but savages, live their life, with no other thought in my mind but to render, the way a child would, the concepts formed in my brain and to do this with the aid of nothing but the primitive means of art, the only means that are good and true.
Paul GauguinNature has mysterious infinities and imaginative power. It is always varying the productions it offers to us. The artist himself is one of nature's means.
Paul Gauguin