Claude Monet Quotes

To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.

I must have flowers, always, and always.

It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.

All I did was to look at what the universe showed me, to let my brush bear witness to it.

The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.

Light is the most important person in the picture.

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare.

I would like to paint the way a bird sings.

It is better to have done something than to have been someone.

Everything changes, even stone.

My only desire is an intimate infusion with nature, and the only fate I wish is to have worked and lived in harmony with her laws.

Critic asks: 'And what, sir, is the subject matter of that painting?' - 'The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light.

I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly.

I didn't become an impressionist. As long as I can remember I always have been one.

It took me time to understand my water lilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them.

All of a sudden I had the revelation of how enchanting my pond was.

I am good at only two things, and those are gardening and painting.

What I need most of all is color, always, always.

I had so much fire in me and so many plans.

By the single example of this painter devoted to his art with such independence, my destiny as a painter opened out to me.

The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.

No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

I'm enjoying the most perfect tranquillity, free from all worries, and in consequence would like to stay this way forever, in a peaceful corner of the countryside like this.

My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece

It's enough to drive you crazy, trying to depict the weather, the atmosphere, the ambience.

My heart is forever in Giverny.

I'm not performing miracles, I'm using up and wasting a lot of paint.

Listening only to my instincts, I discovered superb things.

I'm continuing to work hard, not without periods of discouragement, but my strength comes back again.

Now I really feel the landscape, I can be bold and include every tone of pink and blue: it's enchanting, it's delicious, and I hope it will please you.

A good impression is lost so quickly.

I am very depressed and deeply disgusted with painting. It is really a continual torture.

I haven't many years left ahead of me and I must devote all my time to painting, in the hope of achieving something worthwhile in the end, something if possible that will satisfy me.

My work is always better when I am alone and follow my own impressions.

The real subject of every painting is light.

Nature won't be summoned to order and won't be kept waiting. It must be caught, well caught.

I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel.

Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.

Impressionism is only direct sensation. All great painters were less or more impressionists. It is mainly a question of instinct, and much simpler than [John Singer] Sargent thinks.

I don’t think I’m made for any earthly kind of pleasure.

Lots of people will protest that it's quite unreal and that I'm out of my mind, but that's just too bad

When it is dark, it seems to me as if I were dying, and I can't think any more.

I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain.

Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city. It is fog that gives it its magnificent amplitude...its regular and massive blocks become grandiose in that mysterious mantle.

One can do something if one can see and understand it.

Zaandam has enough to paint for a lifetime.

I'm knocked out, I've never felt so physically and mentally exhausted, I'm quite stupid with it and long only for bed; but I am happy.