Claude Monet

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

I'm not performing miracles, I'm using up and wasting a lot of paint…

What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.

If the world really looks like that I will paint no more!

I get madder and madder on giving back what I feel.

Impression – I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.

To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.

It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare.

Everything changes, even stone.

I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly.

These palm trees [in Bordighera, Italy] are driving me crazy; and also the motifs are extremely difficult to render, to put down on canvas; everywhere is so lush.

Aside from painting and gardening, I am good for nothing.

I'm never finished with my paintings; the further I get, the more I seek the impossible and the more powerless I feel.

More than ever despite my poor sight, I need to paint and paint unceasingly.

City life doesn't really suit me.

Étretat is becoming more and more amazing...it's superb and I rage at my inability to express it all better. You'd need to use both hands and cover hundreds of canvases.

Ah, gentlemen, I do not receive guests when I'm working, indeed. When I work, if I am interrupted, I lose all inspiration; I am lost. You understand, I'm chasing a band of colour.

While you philosophically seek the world in and of itself, I simply focus my efforts on a maximum number of appearances, in close correlation with unknown realities.

I want to paint the air in which the bridge, house or boat exists. The beauty of the air where they are. Yet it is nothing short of impossible.

It took me a while to understand my water lilies… I grew them without thinking about painting them… A landscape does not pervade your senses in one day… Then suddenly I had a revelation and clearly saw these wonders on my pond. I took up my palette and paintbrush. And since then, I've hardly used any other subject.