Every new painting is like throwing myself into the water without knowing how to swim.

There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.

It is not enough to know your craft - you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.

You would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and universal figure and still keep it living and real.

I paint what I see and not what others like to see.

There is no symmetry in nature. One eye is never exactly the same as the other.

There is only one true thing: Instantly paint what you see.

Who is this Monet whose name sounds just like mine and who is taking advantage of my notoriety?

Conciseness in art is essential and a refinement. The concise man makes one think; the verbose bores. Always work towards conciseness.

Insults are pouring down on me as thick as hail.

The principal person in a picture is light.

The farther away, the closer the home becomes.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth

She doesn't know where she is going. She doesn't know when the next demons will appear. But she will keep on walking.She will follow the moon.

Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.

Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

With a teacher it is necessary to be sensitive to their directions; most of the time they won't say much. You have to be still and silent to understand.

The largest single step in the ascent of man is the change from nomad to village agriculture.

When in doubt, leave it out.

Kindness which is bestowed on the good is never lost.

There is one quality that characterizes all of us who deal with the sciences of the earth and its life - we are never bored.