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

Nothing in the whole world is of interest to me but my painting and my flowers.

Perhaps it’s true that I’m very hard on myself, but that’s better than exhibiting mediocre work… too few were satisfactory enough to trouble the public with.

I’ve only myself to blame for it, my impotence most of all and my weakness. If I do any good work now it will be only by chance.

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

I’m in fine fettle and fired with a desire to paint.

These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession.

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

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.

Despite my extremely modest prices, dealers and art lovers are turning their backs on me. It is very depressing to see the lack of interest shown in an art object which has no market value.

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

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

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

Despite my exhaustion I have a devil of a time getting to sleep because of the rats above my bed and a pig who lives beneath my room.

I’m working hard with more determination than ever. My success at the Salon led to my selling several paintings and since your absence I have made 800 francs; I hope, when I have contracts with more dealers, it will be better still.

As for myself, I met with as much success as I ever could have wanted. In other words, I was enthusiastically run-down by every critic of the period.

My life has been nothing but a failure.

Law is a silvery web that lets the big flies pass and catches all the small ones.

I want to catch snowflakes on your tongue.

The day you catch an idea you fall in love with, even a small one, is a beautiful day.

It is only too easy to catch people’s attention by doing something worse than anyone else has dared to do it before.

The more you push to get close to me, the more I’ll withdraw. You’ll never catch me. Not if I don’t want to be caught.

If something catches your attention, it’s probably going to catch the attention of others, too.

It’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.

A closed mouth catches no flies.