I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I’m always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.

I regard it as a waste of time to think only of selling: one forgets one’s art and exaggerates one’s value.

Paint the essential character of things.

Everything is beautiful, all that matters is to be able to interpret.

When you do a thing with your whole soul and everything that is noble within you, you always find your counterpart.

Observe that it is a great error to believe that all mediums of art are not closely tied to their time.

It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character.

I sometimes have a horrible fear of turning up a canvas of mine. I’m always afraid of finding a monster in place of the precious jewels I thought I had put there!

It is absurd to look for perfection.

God takes care of imbeciles, little children and artists.

Don’t be afraid in nature: one must be bold, at the risk of having been deceived and making mistakes.

I remember that, although I was full of fervour, I didn’t have the slightest inkling, even at forty, of the deeper side to the movement we were pursuing by instinct. It was in the air!

Work at the same time on sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on an equal basis… Don’t be afraid of putting on colour… Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression.

Cover the canvas at the first go, then work at it until you see nothing more to add.

I began to understand my sensations, to know what I wanted, at around the age of forty – but only vaguely.

At fifty, that is in 1880, I formulated the idea of unity, without being able to render it. At sixty, I am beginning to see the possibility of rendering it.