Rembrandt

Of course you will say that I ought to be practical and ought to try and paint the way they want me to paint. Well, I will tell you a secret. I have tried and I have tried very hard, but I can't do it. I just can't do it! And that is why I am just a little crazy.

I envy the poet. He is encouraged toward drunkenness and wallows with nubile wenches while the painter must endure wretchedness and pain for his art.

A painting is not made to be sniffed.

I am also surprised that Your Lordship should complain as much about the price as about the canvas, but if Your Lordship wishes to return it as he did the sketch of Homer, I will do another.

My lord, Because of the great pleasure and devotion that I have put into the execution of the two pieces which his Highness has had me make, being the one where the dead body of Christ is laid in the grave and the other one where Christ rises up from the dead to the great shock of the guards.

My lord hang this piece in a strong light and such that one can stand far away so that it will sparkle at its best.

Sincerity is the eventual deception of all great men.

A student full of doubt is unable to move forwards and to judge well the truth.

The greatest thing is to make a portrait that resembles the model, and then to paint it so that it is a beautiful work of art.

Do not seek to be a great painter, but a great man.

He who is not a master of himself will never be a master of painting.

Choose an author as you choose a friend.

Painting is none other than the imitation of nature, but the imitation must be so artful that it deceives.

The eye is the true mirror of the soul.

I am not a painter, I am a thinker.

Drawing is the soul of painting.

The work of art is a confession.

Learn to see.

A good painting is like a good deed. It is never lost.

Look at everything always as if you were seeing it either for the first or last time.