An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

There is no such thing as an ugly woman.

One of the hardest things to do is to paint darkness which nonetheless has light in it.

But what's your ultimate goal, you'll say. That goal will become clearer, will take shape slowly and surely, as the croquis becomes a sketch and the sketch a painting, as one works more seriously, as one digs deeper into the originally vague idea, the first fugitive, passing thought, unless it becomes firm.

...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?

Well, do you know what I hope for, once I allow myself to begin to hope? [...] That you find in your love for people something not only to work for, but to comfort and restore you when there is a need.

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.