"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at."
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Quote collection
Claude Monet quotes (page 1 of 9)
161 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
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"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly."
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"I must have flowers, always, and always."
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"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, house, a field....Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you."
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"Paint what you really see, not what you think you ought to see; not the object isolated as in a test tube, but the object enveloped in sunlight and atmosphere, with the blue dome of Heaven reflected in the shadows."
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"All I did was to look at what the universe showed me, to let my brush bear witness to it."
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"I want the unobtainable. Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat, and that's the end. They are finished. I want to paint the air which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat, the beauty of the air in which these objects are located, and that is nothing short of impossible."
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"The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute."
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"Light is the most important person in the picture."
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"For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value."
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"Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it."
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"It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare."
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"I would like to paint the way a bird sings."
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"It is better to have done something than to have been someone."
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"Everything changes, even stone."
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"My only desire is an intimate infusion with nature, and the only fate I wish is to have worked and lived in harmony with her laws."
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"Critic asks: 'And what, sir, is the subject matter of that painting?' - 'The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light."
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"I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly."
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"I didn't become an impressionist. As long as I can remember I always have been one."
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