The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms, Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.
To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature
The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. Be a man before being an artist!
The artist enriches the soul of humanity. The artist delights people with a thousand different shades of feeling.
He who is discouraged after a failure is not a real artist.
If the artist only reproduces superficial features as photography does, if he copies the lineaments of a face exactly, without reference to character, he deserves no admiration. The resemblance which he ought to obtain is that of the soul.
If the artist succeeds in producing the impression of a movement which takes several moments for accomplishment, his work is certainly much less conventional than the scientific image, where time is abruptly suspended.
The artist has only to trust his eyes.
I grant you that the artist does not see Nature as she appears to the vulgar, because his emotion reveals to him the hidden truths beneath appearances.