The artist should have a powerful will. He should be powerfully possessed by one idea

Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been.

Don't stop to paint the material, but push on to give the spirit.

The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

There is only one reason for art in America, and that is that the people of America learn the means of expressing themselves in their own time, and their own land.

The picture that looks as if it were done without an effort may have been a perfect battlefield in its making.

I am always sorry for the Puritan, for he guided his life against desire and against nature. He found what he thought was comfort, for he believed the spirit's safety was in negation, but he has never given the world one minute's joy or produced one symbol of the beautiful order of nature. He sought peace in bondage and his spirit became a prisoner.