Art Quotes

Words of wisdom by artists and creators in all disciplines

This world is but a canvas to our imagination. - Henry David Thoreau

I feel that whatever picture an artist makes is, in part, a picture of himself - a matter of identity - Emmet  Gowin

Every good painter paints what he is. - Jackson Pollock

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Pablo Picasso

Creativity takes courage. - Henri Matisse

Creativity is contagious, pass it on. - Albert Einstein

If I could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint. - Edward Hopper

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. - Aristotle

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. - Oscar Wilde

The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep. - Paul Strand 

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. - Alfred Stieglitz

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. - Richard Avedon

We have art in order not to die of the truth. - Friedrich Nietzsche

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know. - Diane Arbus

The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them. - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

I think that light and shadow have exactly the same duality that exists between life and death. - Manuel Alvarez Bravo