I do not believe in the art which is not the compulsive result of man's urge to open his heart

Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.

From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.

No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.

What is art? Art grows from joy and sorrow, but mostly from sorrow. It grows from human lives.

I don’t believe in an art that is not born out of man’s need to open his heart.

All art, literature, and music must be born in your heart's blood. Art is your heart's blood.

There is a battle that goes on between men and women. Many people call it love.

The viewers must come to understand the sacredness of painting, so they will remove their hats as if they were in church.

Oil-painting is a developed technique. Why go backwards?

I do not paint what I see, but what I saw.

God is the truth.

The human race will last. Everywhere and forever, for it will never be sane and only insanity is divine. Only the mad destroy themselves and all they have wrought.And only the phoenix lives forever.

Rise up oh heart, for there is another battle to win.

If you press me to say why I loved him I can say no more than it was because he was he and I was 1.

All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help

I was surprised when I started getting old. I always thought it was one of those things that would happen to someone else.

If there is one thing which I would banish from the earth it is fear.

Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked.

He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.

I don't think you get to be pope without making some enemies, like you do when you're president.