Quotes from Emil Nolde

Sometimes it seems to me that I am capable of absolutely nothing, but that nature through me can accomplish a great deal.

Art is exalted above religion and race. Not a single solitary soul these days believes in the religions of the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Greeks... Only their art, whenever it was beautiful, stands proud and exalted, rising above all time.

Pictures are spiritual beings. The soul of the painter lives within them.

Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties.

Sometimes it seems to me that I am capable of absolutely nothing, but that nature through me can accomplish a great deal.

All important things in art have always originated from the deepest feeling about the mystery of Being.

Hardly any of the names of ancient artists are recorded, even though they did more for the happiness of their people than the pharoahs, generals, and world rulers whose pride filled the world with sorrow.

Clever people master life; the wise illuminate it and create fresh difficulties.

Colours in vibration, peeling like silver bells and clanging like bronze bells, proclaiming happiness, passion and love, soul, blood and death.

The artist need not know very much, best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

A work becomes a work of art when one re-evaluates the values of nature and adds one's own spirituality.

The art of an artist must be his own art. It is... always a continuous chain of little inventions, little technical discoveries of ones own, in ones relation to the tool, the material and the colors.