Quotes from Paul Cezanne

We live in a rainbow of chaos.

Is art really the priesthood that demands the pure in heart who belong to it wholly?

An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all... feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end; craft, objective, technique - all these are in the middle.

An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all.

Taste is the best judge. It is rare. Art only addresses itself to an excessively small number of individuals.

If I were called upon to define briefly the word Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses preceive in nature, seen through the veil of the soul.

Art first of all is optical. That's where the material of our art is: in what our eyes think.

I have nothing to hide in art. The initial force alone can bring anyone to the end he must attain.

Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left.

The clear French landscape is as pure as a verse of Racine.

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

One does not substitute oneself for the past, one merely adds to it a new link.

I must be more sensible and realize that at my age, illusions are hardly permitted and they will always destroy me.

Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience.

One must see one's model correctly and experience it in the right way; and furthermore express oneself forcibly and with distinction.

Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, all in perspective.

Pure drawing is an abstraction. Drawing and colour are not distinct, everything in nature is coloured.

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

Painting from nature is not copying the object it is realizing one's sensations.

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed [in a painting], will set off a revolution.

I lack the magnificent richness of color that animates nature.

My age and health will never allow me to realize the dream of art I've been pursuing all my life.

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

Monet is only an eye—but what an eye!