The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.

I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full.

The pure, frank sentiments we hold in our hearts are the only truthful sources of art.

All authentic art is conceived at a sacred moment and nourished in a blessed hour an inner impulse creates it, often without the artist being aware of it.

The feelings of another person should never be imposed upon us as a law.

Close your bodily eye, that you may see your picture first with the eye of the spirit. Then bring to light what you have seen in the darkness, that its effect may work back, from without to within.

The divine is everywhere, even in a grain of sand there I represented it in the reeds.

The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting that which he sees before him. Otherwise, his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead.

When a scene is shrouded in mist, it seems greater, nobler, and heightens the viewers' imaginative powers, increasing expectation - like a veiled girl. Generally the eye and the imagination are more readily drawn by nebulous distance than by what is perfectly plain for all to see