“Michelangelo is a constructor, and Rafael an artist who, great as he is, is always limited by the model. When he tries to be thoughtful he falls below the niveau of his great rival.”

My nervous system is enfeebled, only work in oils can sustain me.

The landscape thinks itself in me and I am its consciousness.

For an Impressionist to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realize sensations.

Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye!

There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

Painting is founded on the heart controlled by the head.

The sun penetrates me soundlessly like a distant friend that stirs up my laziness, fertilizes it. We bring forth life.

It is not about painting life, it is about making the painting alive.

The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.

When I start thinking, all is lost.

Nature is the best instructor.

The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.

It is impossible for emotion not to come on us in thinking of that time now flowed away.

I am the primitive of the method I have invented.

Painting is damned difficult – you always think you’ve got it, but you haven’t.

I think it’s good that I had some experience of the real world before I became successful. You know, having to get up in the morning and going to work in construction.

We need to be weapons of mass construction, weapons of mass love. It’s not enough just to change the system. We need to change ourselves.

Dreams are constructed from the residue of yesterday..

Public self is a conditioned construct of the inner psychological self.

The ego-self constantly pushes reality away. It constructs a future out of empty expectations and a past out of regretful memories.

My job is to be the constructive awakener of the black masses of the world so them know themself and others know what black people suppose to be and where.

A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.