Quotes from Eugene Delacroix

Let a man of genius make use [of photography] as it should be used, and he will raise himself to a height that we do not know.

Glory to that Homer of painting, to that father of warmth and enthusiasm... he really paints men.

Even when we look at nature, our imagination constructs the picture.

Nature creates unity even in the parts of a whole.

The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.

The secret of not having worries, for me at least, is to have ideas.

God is that inner presence which makes us admire the beautiful and consoles us for not sharing the happiness of the wicked.

Nature is a dictionary; one draws words from it.

A taste for simplicity cannot endure for long.

If one considered life as a simple loan, one would perhaps be less exacting. We possess actually nothing; everything goes through us.

Always, at the back of your soul, there is something that says to you, 'Mortal, drawn from eternal life for a short time, think how precious these moments are.

Do not be troubled for a language, cultivate your soul and she will show herself.

If you are not skillful enough to sketch a man jumping out of a window in the time it takes him to fall from the fourth storey to the ground, you will never be able to produce great works.

It is only possible to speak in the language and in the spirit of one's time.

Every time I await a model, even when I am most pressed to time, I am overjoyed when the time comes and I tremble when I hear the key turn in the door.

O young artist, you search for a subject—everything is a subject. Your subject is yourself, your impressions, your emotions in the presence of nature.

Mediocre people have an answer for everything and are astonished at nothing.

The first virtue of a painting is to be a feast for the eyes.

Painting is only a bridge linking the painter's mind with that of the viewer.

A taste for simplicity cannot endure for long.

Experience has two things to teach. The first is that we must correct a great deal and the second, that we must not correct too much.

Mediocre people have an answer for everything and are astonished at nothing. They always want to have the air of knowing better than you what you are going to tell them; when, in their turn, they begin to speak, they repeat to you with the greatest confidence, as if dealing with their own property, the things that they have heard you say yourself at some other place. A capable and superior look is the natural accompaniment of this type of character.

The source of genius is imagination alone, the refinement of the senses that sees what others do not see, or sees them differently.

What makes men of genius, or rather, what they make, is not new ideas, it is that idea -- possessing them -- that what has been said has still not been said enough.