All my life I have refused to be for or against parties, for or against nations, for or against people. I never seek novelty or the eccentric; I do not go from land to land to contrast civilizations. I seek only, wherever I go, for symbols of greatness, and as I have already said, they...

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.

In certain books—some way in the first few paragraphs you know that you have met a brother.

The most vital things in the look of a landscape endure only for a moment. Work should be done from memory; memory of that vital moment.

In every human being there is the artist, and whatever his activity, he has an equal chance with any to express the result of his growth and his contact with life. I don’t believe any real artist cares whether what he does is ‘art’ or not. Who, after all, knows what art is?

A Curve does not exist in its full power until contrasted with a straight line.

We read books. They make us think. It matters very little whether we agree with the books or not.

Lines are results, do not draw them for themselves. … Lines give birth to lines. Drawing is not following a line on the model, it is drawing your sense of the thing. … Make a drawing flow, stopping sometimes, and going on. … Search for the simple constructive forces, line the lines of a suspension...

The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

The end will be what it will be. The object is intense living, fulfillment; the great happiness in creation.

Art is the giving by each man of his evidence to the world. Those who wish to give, love to give, discover the pleasure of giving. Those who give are tremendously strong.

Houses, housetops, like human beings have wonderful character. The lives of housetops. The wear of the seasons. The country is beautiful, young, growing things. The majesty of trees. The backs of tenement houses are living documents.

Concentrate on a single feature – as, build all toward one eye – make all lines lead toward that eye. (Robert Henri)

Don’t worry about your originality. You couldn’t get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do.

I have no sympathy with the belief that art is the restricted province of those who paint, sculpt, make music and verse. I hope we will come to an understanding that the material used is only incidental, that there is artist in every man; and that to him the possibility of development and of expression...

Pretend you are dancing or singing a picture. A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it.

You pass people on the street, some are for you, some are not.

The work of the art student is no light matter. Few have the courage and stamina to see it through. You have to make up your mind to be alone in many ways. We like sympathy and we like to be in company. It is easier than going it alone. But alone one gets acquainted...

Do whatever you do intensely.

What we need is more sense of the wonder of life and less of this business of making a picture.

All real works of art look as though they were done in joy.

An artist must have imagination. An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.

There is always a commanding and simple line around each head. Learn to have a love for the big simple line.

Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.

Those who express even a little of themselves never become old-fashioned.

Because we are saturated with life, because we are human, our strongest motive is life, humanity; and the stronger the motive back of the line the stronger, and therefore more beautiful, the line will be.

We are troubled by having two selves, the inner and the outer. The outer one is rather dull and lets great things go by.

Water runs down hill concisely. There is no quibbling about it. It does not have to run up hill in order to be entertaining. Man has always followed its course with fascination. The soul of man may reveal its mysteries through direct expression, simple speech, simple gesture, simple painting, just as the soul of the...

I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living.

Be game–take a chance–don’t hide behind veils and veils of discretion… Go forward with what you have to say, expressing things as you see them. You are new evidence, fresh and young. Your work, the spirit of youth, you are the progress of human evolution. If age dulls you it will be time enough then...

Good composition is like a suspension bridge; each line adds strength and takes none away… Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition.

There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.

Art is simply a result of expression during right feeling. It’s a result of a grip on the fundamentals of nature, the spirit of life, the constructive force, the secret of growth, a real understanding of the relative importance of things, order, balance. Any material will do. After all, the object is not to make...

There is no art without contemplation.

If we are cultivating fruit in an orchard, we wish that particular fruit to grow in its own way; we give it the soil it needs, the amount of moisture, the amount of care, but we do not treat the apple tree as we would the pear tree or the peach tree as we would...

If a certain activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and...

Well, suppose we use our brains. We see things solid. Solidities are important to us in nature. In solidities, there are measures that greatly affect us. There are rhythms in the ins and outs of form. Music, the forest and to many the most impressive of arts deals in measures which seem to go in...

Color is only beautiful when it means something.

We will be happy if we can get around to the idea that art is not an outside and extra thing; that it is a natural outcome of a state of being; that the state of being is the important thing; that a man can be a carpenter and be a great man.

The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook.

The brain can be a wonderful tool, can be a willing slave, as has been evidenced by some men, but of course it works poorly when it has not the habit of usage. An automobile can become a source of delight, but the first time you drive you are as apt to go up a...

Sometimes we do grip the concert in a human head, and so hold it that in a way we get a record of it into paint, but the vision and expressing of one day will not do for the next.

A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.

A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.

Get the few main lines and see what lines they call out.

Cherish your own emotions and never under-value them. We are not here to do what has already been done.

The undercurrent and motive of all art is an individual man’s idea. From each we expect what he has to give. We desire it. It is absolutely necessary for him to give it out.

A common defect of modern art study is that too many students do not know why they draw.

done,” and let it stand alone in its fullest meaning. Things are not done beautifully. The beauty is an integral part of their being done.