Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.

It's as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint it. There is the art of lines and colours, but the art of words exists too, and will never be less important.

Ah! My dear friend painting is to us what the music of Berlioz and Wagner was before us - a consolatory art for sore hearts! And yet there are only a few like you and me who feel it!!!

Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.

As practice makes perfect, I cannot but make progress; each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward.

I want to get to the point where people say of my work, that man feels deeply.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.