What a splendid thing watercolour is to express atmosphere and distance, so that the figure is surrounded by air and can breathe in it.

I take great care of myself by carefully shutting myself away.

To stick to the present and not let it pass without drawing some profit from it, that's what I think duty is. ...let us perservere as far as we can rather today than tomorrow.

Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity.

I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.

One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well, just as one can say comforting things in music.

It is good to love many things