Things Known and Unknown
Words and sentences by famous and not so famous persons, people and Belozems!
I noticed that my figures, animals, insects and fishes look as if they will jump out of the paper. Isn't that extraordinary? And a publisher, informed about that matter, wished from me in such a way, that I could not refuse him. Luckily the engraver Ko-Izumi, quite a skillful woodcutter, undertook the task and with his well-sharpened knife he managed to cut off the nerves and the veins of the creatures, that I had drawn and thus he prevented them from the freedom of running away.
One must learn all about flowers in order to find nice hues for drapes.
The secret of beauty should be sought in truthfulness. Old masters have neither created, nor invented the truth but have revealed only revealed it. Have love for the truth, for it is beautiful, if you could distinguish and feel it. We must develop eyes that see well and are perceptive – I want nothing more. If you want to see that foot ugly, I know, you will find enough reasons to do it, but I will tell you: "Look it with my eyes and it will seem beautiful to you".
There is no inaccurate painting, there are good or bad paintings, that's all.
And in fact I am but a poor man, who has educated himself in art, just as St. Fransise has done in poverty. The marks of this unity can be seen on my hands, on my bones, all over my body. And now, as I live preserving my dignity of artist and man, I continue to live discontented.
Of the thousand untruths spread around about famous painters, the greatest confidence enjoys the plot that presents them as eccentric persons, that are hard to get to and unbearable, while in fact they are of a quite human nature. So the fools, I don't say the reasonable people, think they are odd and headstrong, things that hardly agree with the character of the artist. The empty people are not right when they ask the artist, absorbed by his work, to be polite in order to seem pleasant, because a few people execute their craft consciously, and those who do not do their duty are the same who blame the deserving people for their wish to do their duty carefully.
I would not spend a single day of my life in idleness. Art refreshes me even when it squeezes down my last talent. I find peace in it because it loves me in such a way that I forget about myself. It leads me into a world of ideas and already realized thoughts in which it is hard to get in.
Sculpture – it is humanity itself, bare as stone, sad as the strenuous labor and destitution.
Look at the light and enjoy its beauty. Close your eyes and see. The things you have seen are gone, and the things you are about to see have not yet appeared.
When I am amidst a natural landscape, I am angry about my paintings.
Let's inebriate with light once again, it is so soothing.
Everything gets darker still... the lake only flickers... Countless stars twinkle densely... An illusion is born... The sun has set, but the inner sun of the soul, the sun of art rises up... Good, I am clear about my picture.
Let only your feeling show you the way.
Colors are like an illusion, which persuades the eye, as in poetry is the beauty of the verses.
I left nothing unattended.
Life and art are completely different things. We express our notions in art, all of which cannot be found in life... I work not from life, but in its presence, together with it...
I keep adding paint until it seems right to me.
Even in the best picture most people would never see anything more than the plot.
Only the mediocre make progress. An artist circles in an array of masterpieces, the first of which is as perfect as the last one.
The only portraits we believe in are those in which there is very little from the object and very much from the artist.
Society is amazingly tolerant. It will forgive everything but genius.
Sketch with a broom, finish with a pin.
Painting is a humble art; it will wait for you to go and reach it without effort: but a single glance.
The novelty is seldom essential. The important thing is to make something better, starting from the inmost depths of its nature.
There are two ways to draw. And you must choose the third one. The first way is to draw things as they are – that means to deceive one's eyes. The second way – is to draw the things as they are not – and that means to deceive one's mind. The third way is to express the hidden goal of the creator.
I don't paint people, but create such through my painting.
Humor
From tales on the table and under it
Everybody tries to take a share from the blanket similar to his life. Why then does God give us talents?... And how come we are wrong and lose the happiness of both us and our children, along the worldwide competition "to own" and become slaves to our countries... While man is just a nature. Nothing but nature is he! Hey!
Kings that used to have jesters had never seen a revolution in their lives.
The war is over — many will not return. Those who will return won't find their relatives. I could wish you nothing more than to restore your sense of humor.
He was born a livestock — he died a cattle.
When you want everything right now, you get nothing but bit by bit!
The more it goes, the more it goes!
One who thinks quick regrets long after.
If you think you have money enough, you don't have enough imagination.
One who steals sausages or money risks an arrest. One who steals ideas is honored. What should we do?
To whom you think you are laughing — to none other than yourself.
Life and Nature
One that aims at the stars would never turn back!
As the well-spent day is followed by sound sleep, so the well-spent life is followed by an easy death.
The windmill isn't there anymore, but the wind has been there all the time.
I can't help it that my pictures are not selling well. There will be a day however, when it will become clear that they cost more than the price of my oil paints and of my life, a very low one though, that I put in them.
I worked hard and made fine use of my life, clever and daring.
I came to know extreme poverty, but there is nothing, or barely anything to fear in it. The dreadful thing is the impossibility to work.
Until I was fifty I had every trouble of poverty. I have always lived as a worker; the happiness of work helped me go through everything. In fact, when I don't work I get bored. It would be hateful for me if I didn't work.
The stars know all about us long before we were born and that's why they are not so curious about us as we are about them.
Don't regret me when I am poor, regret me when I am lonely.
There is no more stupid thing than the will to be cleverer than everybody else.
When it is in our power, suffering is my delight.
When you speak nonsense, nobody bothers you, although they think you are an idiot. It is another matter when you speak out the truth.
My life is entirely devoted to Art and to what I see around me. Art for me is not a means of getting famous but a sign of the artist's humbleness.
I need no palaces, or society to entertain me. I find everything I need in myself. Even my desperation. But what other thing could I do? During one's life everybody is guided by his own principles.
Exile turns into torture when not softened by hope.
My dear, walking stick – go forth! I depend on you when I am on the way of truth, that I chose for my walks, till I grew old.