Auguste Rodin — "The beautiful is everywhere; it is not that which is lacking to our eye, but to …"

"Why then should I clothe him to make him look ridiculous in the foolish masculine fashions of his time? There is nothing more banal than these statues of recent notabilities, to be seen in every big c…"

"People have often accused me of having made erotic sculptures. I have never made a sculpture for the sake of the erotic element."

"I have sought to express the passion, the mystery of the soul."

"If my modelling is bad, if I make faults in anatomy, if I misinterpret movement, if I am ignorant of the science which animates marble, the critics are right a hundred times. But if my figures are cor…"

"It's quite simple, the day the public will recognise my sculptures and those of other young artists in my wake, the teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts will be turned upside down."