"You know that Jeannin has the peony, Quost has the hollyhock, but I have the sunflower, in a way."

"I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing."

"One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way."

"What moulting is to birds, the time when they change their feathers, that's adversity or misfortune, hard times, for us human beings. Instead of giving way to despair, I took the way of active melanch…"