Paul Cezanne

“The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with paintings.”

“I am more a friend of art than a producer of painting.”

“I have nothing to hide in art. The initial force alone can bring anyone to the end he must attain.”

“I paint as if I were Rothschild.”

“People think how a sugar basin has no physiognomy, no soul. But it changes every day.”

“I allow no one to touch me.”

“We must not be content to memorize the beautiful formulas of our illustrious predecessors. Let us go out and study beautiful nature.”

“One does not substitute oneself for the past, one merely adds to it a new link.”

“An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all.”

“Is art really the priesthood that demands the pure in heart who belong to it wholly?”

“I lack the magnificent richness of color that animates nature.”

“The world doesn't understand me and I don't understand the world, that's why I've withdrawn from it.”

“I must be more sensible and realize that at my age, illusions are hardly permitted and they will always destroy me.”

“The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.”

“If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain.”

“Shadow is a colour as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two tones.”

“There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.”

“The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”

“I ask you to pray for me, for once age has overtaken us, we find consolation only in religion.”

“It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.”