If the painter works directly from nature, he ultimately looks for nothing but momentary effects; he does not try to compose, and soon he gets monotonous.

Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character.

People love to be nice, but you must give them the chance.

There are quite enough unpleasant things in life without the need to manufacture more.

There are some things in painting which cannot be explained, and that something is essential.

With a limited palette, the older painters could do just as well as today what they did was sounder.

I look at a nude. There are myriads of tiny tints. I must find the ones that will make the flesh on my canvas live and quiver.