Margaret Bourke-White Quotes

Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.

Photography is a very subtle thing. You must let the camera take you by the hand, as it were, and lead you into your subject.

A burning purpose attracts others who are drawn along with it and help fulfill it.

To understand another human being you must gain some insight into the conditions which made him what he is.

Nothing attracts me like a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have pried it open.

The camera is a remarkable instrument. Saturate yourself with your subject, and the camera will all but take you by the hand and point the way.

If you want to photograph a man spinning, give some thought to why he spins. Understanding for a photographer is as important as the equipment he uses.

If you banish fear, nothing terribly bad can happen to you.

"Utter truth is essential, and that is what stirs me when I look through the camera."

Usually I object when someone makes over-much of men's work versus women's work, for I think it is the excellence of the results which counts.

The sights I have just seen [at Buchenwald] are so unbelievable that I don't think I'll believe them myself until I've seen the photographs.

The very secret of life for me, I believed, was to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquility.

The beauty of the past belongs to the past.

If anyone gets in my way when I'm making a picture, I become irrational. I'm never sure what I am going to do, or sometimes even aware of what I do-only that I want that picture.

I was to discover that the quest for human understanding is a lifetime one that has no end in sight.

A kind of golden hour one remembers for a life time... Everything was touched with magic.

Nothing attracts me like a closed door.

We are in a privileged and sometimes happy position. We see a great deal of the world. Our obligation is to pass it on to others.

The element of discovery is very important. I don't repeat myself well. I want and need that stimulus of walking forward from one new world to another.

Utter truth is essential...and to get that truth may take a lot of searching and long hours.

You are responsible for what you have done and the people whom you have influenced.

Work to me is a sacred thing.

Life is beating against the school windows. You must quickly open the doors and go out to learn that no door must be locked against you.

The world was waiting to be full of discovery made(as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned.you would react to something all others might walk by.

I love to write out of doors and sleep out of doors, too. If I sleep under the open sky it becomes part of the writing experience, part of my insulation from the world.

My idea of gardening is to discover something wild in my wood and weed around it with the utmost care until it has a chance to grow and spread.

I have always thought that if I could turn back the pages of history and photograph one man, my choice would be Moses.

I have never forgotten a picture that I ever made.

Even while you're in dead earnest about your work, you must approach it with a feeling of freedom and joy; you must be loose-jointed, like a relaxed athlete.

A book, while it is being written, has an intense life of its own which you share.

War makes its own morals.

If you banish fear nothing terribly bad can happen to you.