“There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.”

“I thought I might die. But then I thought, 'Other people have made it through these things before'. I kept my eyes on the lights on shore and kept swimming.”

“I paint ideas, not things. My intention is less to paint works that are pleasing to the eye than to suggest great thoughts which will speak to the imagination and the heart and will arouse all that is noblest and best in man.”

“In the movement of the proteron te phusei may be found the heart of thought, that which remains veiled in what thought says and which speaking obeys as some secret command. But already, when it speaks, thought no longer speaks what moves it. It no longer retains that emotion even as a fault of speech, as a dark night out of which it would expect to burst forth. Thought excludes the heart that moves it. That which makes thought live is spoiled, set outside of it. But it does not know this.”

“The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.”

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.”

“A pleasant-smiling cheek, a speaking eye,
A brow for love to banquet royally.”

“The invisible is seen among the shadows and the mist:
Before my doubting eyes,
The infinite appears this time,
The unquestionable is questioned
But makes no reply!”

“You can’t make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak”

“.. before I die I should like to bring two paintings to completion. What matters is to touch the limit, the essence of things.”