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Mind Quotes by Henri Matisse

8 Mind quotes by Henri Matisse

All Mind quotes Henri Matisse’s page

Henri Matisse never shied away from probing the inner workings of thought. In this brief selection, his eight observations on the mind reveal the same bold curiosity that colored his canvases, giving readers a quick yet vivid sense of how he framed mental life.

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Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident…

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What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a…

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Perhaps I might be satisfied, momentarily, with a work finished at one sitting, but I would soon get bored looking at it;…

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I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing…

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A new painting is a unique event, a birth, which enriches the universe as it is grasped by the human mind, by…

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All that is not useful in a picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety; for superfluous…

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I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.

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The essential thing is to work in a state of mind that approaches prayer.

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More by Henri Matisse

The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

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Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.

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To arrive is to be in prison.

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When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt I was…

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A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

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Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our…

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If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as little as…

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I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect…

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The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible.

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One gets into a state of creativity by conscious work.

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My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another…

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What I dream of is an art of balance.

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...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

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I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

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After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.

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