Quotes from Rene Magritte

If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.

Those who become entangled in these false ideas are prevented from perceiving the Integral Oneness.

What he imagines evokes nothing imaginary, it evokes the reality of the world that experience and reason treat in a confused manner.

Between words and objects one can create new relations and specify characteristics of language and objects generally ignored in everyday life.

People who look for symbolic meaning fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the images.

A truly poetic canvas is an awakened dream.

Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist

If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.

Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

We are surrounded by curtains. We only perceive the world behind a curtain of semblance. At the same time, an object needs to be covered in order to be recognized at all.

I do not like money, either for itself or for what it can buy, since I want nothing we know about.

Visible things can be invisible. However, our powers of thought grasp both the visible and the invisible – and I make use of painting to render thoughts visible.

What he imagines evokes nothing imaginary, it evokes the reality of the world that experience and reason treat in a confused manner.

Between words and objects one can create new relations and specify characteristics of language and objects generally ignored in everyday life.

We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world.

Everyday objects shriek aloud.

If one looks at a thing with the intention of trying to discover what it means, one ends up no longer seeing the thing itself, but of thinking of the question that is raised.

He is no longer the pretext for a story: the story itself renders him homage. The works of Fantomas can neither be destroyed nor accept modifications. ...Fantomas requires more of others than of himself ... He is never completely invisible. His likeness can be seen through his face. ... Fantomas's science is more precious than the word. It is not possible to guess it - and no one can doubt its power.

Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well....

This is not a pipe.

An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better.

It is not my intention to make anything comprehensible. I am of the opinion that there are sufficient paintings which one understands after a shorter or longer delay, and that therefore some incomprehensible painting would now be welcome. I am at pains to deliver such, as far as possible.

The present reeks of mediocrity and the atom bomb.